MegaTokyo: NewGames
by HisHoliness
Summary: [MegaTokyo] When Ping is abducted by vengeful 'EndGames' developers, who will help Miho rescue her friend?
1. Chapter 1

_All characters portrayed herein are the  
__Intellectual and copyrighted property of  
__Fred Gallagher and **Fredart Studios Lic**._

Megatokyo: NewGames.  
Chapter 1

**Six months ago:  
**E3 Game Show

"Wanna know what I think of your stinkin' con? THIS is what I think of your stinkin' con!" screamed Largo.

Piro, who was Largo's long-time friend and roommate, was looking up at the boisterous redhead standing on top of a display booth at the annual E3 game convention. Largo was drunk and rowdy, which was normal for him. He was also getting naked, which was also normal for him. Piro felt he ought to at least make an attempt to stop Largo's vulgar display, if for no other reason than to avoid an accessory charge.

"Ah, Largo, please come down," said Piro. "And put your pants on."

Looking at the two young American men, one would not really think they could get along. Largo was a very loud and often-obnoxious person, whose main interests in life were First Person Shooter games, beer and computers. He was somewhat tall, with a slim build and an energetic way of moving. Normal people began to get tired just from standing next to him.

Piro, on the other hand, was shy and mostly quiet. He wore glasses and tended to hide behind the lenses. While he shared a love of games with Largo, the types of games the diminutive blonde Piro liked were dating simulation games. He wasn't much of a drinker, and tended to move slowly. He was much shorter and stockier than Largo, and was quite clumsy.

The one thing they did have completely in common was that neither one went by their real names. They were so immersed in the world of computers that most people, even in real-life, referred to them by their screen-names.

Needless to say, neither one had ever had much luck in the realm of girls. Since Piro preferred dating-sim games, and Largo actually seemed to be somewhat suspicious of the female species as a whole, neither one cared about their lack of feminine companionship.

"Sir, are you with this man?" asked one of the security staff at the convention, holding Largo by the collar of a shirt he was still trying to remove.

"If I say 'Yes' will I be held as an accomplice?" asked Piro, looking over at Largo.

"Both of you need to leave, now," grunted the guard and motioned them towards the door, dropping Largo in the process.

Luckily, when the guard released the struggling man, Largo ceased his attempts at disrobing and lay there in an inebriated heap. He had a decidedly green tinge to his skin.

"This con sucks," slurred Largo. "These people are not l33t. They don't know what a game convention should be!"

"Why not go to Tokyo, then?" asked Piro. "It's like Mecca, but for gamers."

Largo would have responded were he not in the process of getting violently sick all over the Bioware booth.

"Good enough," said Piro and began laboriously dragging his friend to the exit.

Piro booked a flight for Largo and himself at the airport, which was a little difficult as Largo had passed completely out while riding in the taxi.

Largo recovered during the plane ride, and Piro informed him of what had transpired. Initially, Largo had taken the news poorly, but had decided that maybe a trip to Tokyo wasn't such a bad idea, after all.

After arriving in Tokyo, the two men decided to go shopping for games and beer. This turned out to be a mistake, since they both had fairly low limits on their credit cards and could not afford a return ticket. Having concluded that they were stuck in Tokyo, Piro contacted his friend Tsubasa, who obligingly let them stay at his place until they could acquire the funds needed to get back home. Several weeks went by, and Tsubasa started to get a little annoyed at his two guests. Sadly, after borrowing the money from two friends back in the States, Piro and Largo blew all their money on games and beer, again.

By sheerest chance, Piro managed to land a job working at a video game store in the Shinjuku district called MegaGamers with a girl named Erika Hayasaka.

Shortly thereafter, Tsubasa left quite suddenly to go and look for a childhood sweetheart of his in the US, causing Piro and Largo to be evicted from Tsubasa's apartment, along with Ping, a life-like android whose purpose was to make dating-sim games more realistic. After hearing about the lack of living quarters for the two men, Erika bullied the owner of the game store into allowing Piro and Largo to move into an apartment that was on the third floor of the building the game store was in.

A couple of weeks after the two men moved in, there was a riot in front of the store, which had turned violent. It turned out that Erika used to be a voice actress for an older anime called "Girl Phase", which had seen a massive fan-base built up over the years. Erika had quickly become a national idol, not only doing voice acting, but also releasing music CD's and doing photo-shoots for magazines. She dropped out of the scene a couple of years ago due to personal problems. It was very sudden, and had shocked all of her fans; still, she remained quite popular, as evidenced by the massive horde of fanboys that had descended on the shop. Piro had come out of the ordeal with a broken nose, and the hackers that were attacking at the same time had badly damaged Largo's computers. After a few days, life returned to normal.

**Present Day: **

_MegaGamers_

Note: Any text in ( ) is spoken in Japanese.

Piro was slowly coming awake. He had not slept well since Largo had sat up most of the night working on repairing his Beowulf Cluster. Admittedly, it had taken a severe beating by the fanboy hackers who had been stalking Erika, but since that whole thing had been mostly resolved, Piro saw no reason why it needed any sort of work done to it.

Looking at the clock, Piro realized that it was somewhat late and that he needed to get ready for work. The good thing about living right above where he worked was that he did not have to get up earlier than 8:30 AM. "Oh well," he said as he rolled out of the futon where he slept, "guess I'll get some breakfast."

Walking to the section of the apartment where the kitchen was never Piro's favorite thing to do, as it took him right past where Largo did his "L33t" adjustments to whatever piece of equipment was unfortunate enough to have drawn his attention.

The problem was, Largo did his upgrades totally naked. He said it was prevent static electric discharges from damaging the gear, but Piro suspected it was just another manifestation of Largo's multiple psychoses. This morning, however, Largo had already left the apartment to go to work. Hopefully, fully clothed.

Largo had somehow managed to finagle a job as an English teacher at Shiritsu Daitou High School. He didn't really seem to take the job seriously, preferring to teach his students how to defend themselves against hordes of zombies and "3vi1" creatures rather than teach them English. Still, it was better than having him sit around all day while Piro was working. Fires tended to get started that way.

As he was pouring himself a bowl of Oaty O's, Ping came rushing out from behind the privacy screen she had Piro put up for her.

(Good morning, Piro-kun!) Ping said hurriedly. Ping was a robot-girl; a PS2 accessory called the Sony SEVS-44936, which brought a whole new level to the world of dating simulation games. She was incredibly life-like, not only in appearance but also in personality. She would, given time, begin to emulate the girls in any dating-sim game that utilized an Emotional Doll System (EDS) interface. Good technology, but bad for one's social life. Doubly so, since Ping looked to be between the age of 14 and 16, and was programmed to believe she had to go to school.

(Good morning, Ping,) replied Piro, with a yawn. In all honesty, he would have been very glad to have had one of these robot girls back in the states. Here in Tokyo, however, she really caused him a good bit of trouble. Still, he felt responsible for her since Tsubasa had asked him to take care of her.

(I'm sorry, Piro-kun, but I'm running really late for school! Tohya-san didn't come by this morning, and I didn't set my internal alarm, so I've got to hurry! I'll see you this afternoon,) the robot girl said with a wave as she ran out the door.

(Yeah, see ya,) was all the still sleepy Piro really had to say.

As Piro got dressed for work, he briefly wondered why Tohya hadn't come by this morning, since she was usually very prompt. Piro was relieved that she'd not come, however.

Piro, Largo and Tohya had something of a history together.

Years ago, the three of them knew each other from playing an online game called "EndGames." Due to a user statistics algorithm she had found, Tohya had been able to easily manipulate the other players in the game, even to the point of affecting them in the real world. She was also one of the few gamers that were able to successfully cheat the game, though the how of it remains a mystery. Oddly enough, she had been completely unable to affect Piro or Largo. It had ended as a rather heated competition between the three of them, with Piro and Largo soundly defeating her.

Since the two Americans had moved to Tokyo, Tohya had been spending most of her time tormenting Largo. Largo believed she was a Zombie Queen, waiting to unleash her hordes of the undead on Tokyo. Tohya did nothing to quell his suspicions, seeming to enjoy the conflict.

She seemed to have lost interest in Piro, though she still contacted him at times, for various reasons. Because Piro could not see an agenda, he was not completely sure of what to think about her. He did know that she made him very nervous. He often wondered about her friendship with Ping, but since she seemed to genuinely like the robot-girl, he believed Tohya did not mean Ping any harm.

When Piro walked into the MegaGamers stockroom, Erika was already there. She was a rather tall and imposing girl with brown hair and a figure that most supermodels murder people for. She was quite rough with Piro, but somehow managed to keep him from getting himself in over his head most of the time. She sometimes seemed to like Largo, but was highly intolerant of his antics.

She turned and held out a small bundle.

(Here, put this on,) said Erika by way of greeting. The bundle turned out to be one more ridiculous cosplay outfit, not unlike others that Erika forced him to wear every day. Piro considered telling her that he was sick of looking like something out of Pokemon, but decided to shut up and wear the stupid thing. "It's kind of like health insurance, I suppose," mumbled Piro.

(Did you say something?) Erika asked.

(No, no…I was just talking to myself,) replied Piro hastily, and started to assemble his outfit..

Besides, it was nothing compared to what Erika's roommate, Kimiko Nansawa, made for Erika to wear. Today it was an outfit that looked like a cross between a French Maid and an Elizabethan Era noblewoman. Kimiko liked dressing Erika up in all sorts of fantastic outfits. She was really quite talented.

(I'm going to take these games out to the shelves,) said Piro, carrying a box full of new releases.

(Fine,) said Erika, who was trying to adjust the ribbons that Kimiko had woven into her hair.

Piro puttered around the shop for a few hours, trying to keep busy. Truthfully, he really enjoyed working at MegaGamers, but sometimes the store was distressingly slow. Then again, it was better than starving and it allowed him a place to sleep at night.

Shiritsu Daitou High School 

Looking around at all the faces of the students, Great Teacher Largo couldn't help but wonder if all his efforts had been in vain. Seeing the smiling students, running around as if they had no cares in the world, as if they did not mind the evil plague that was just starting it's descent on an unsuspecting populace, Largo was filled with a sense of dread. The truly odd thing was that he was beginning to feel responsible for these young, untrained n00bs. It was a completely foreign feeling for him.

Until very recently, the only time he felt at all responsible towards another life form was when he instructed another gamer in the ways of loss and defeat. But, that was always showing the poor gamer that Largo could not be beaten. That he was l33t. That he owned them all.

Now, he felt that he had to teach these kids how to survive the coming apocalypse. All in all, it was a very disturbing feeling, and one that he still tried to come to terms with. Until then, however, he would continue to track and observe the movements of the Zombie Queen, as he called Tohya, and attempt to foil her wherever possible. She had to be stopped, he felt.

(Oh! Good morning, Largo-sensei,) said the Vice-principal of the school. (I have been looking for you.)

Largo turned and looked at the small man with a cold eye.

(Do you have a minute, so we can talk?) the Vice-principal asked.

"I don't understand you," Largo replied. He began looking the Vice-principal over for signs that he had been taken over by the undead. Almost every one of the zombies he had encountered here spoke in this strange tongue.

"I'm sorry, Largo-sensei. I can speak English, if you prefer," he said, easily. Largo relaxed, slightly.

"I don't have time for you. I need to get to my class," said Largo. "There is much that I still need to teach them."

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that, Largo-sensei. The other teachers have been listening to your students talk about your…curriculum. I know that the schools in America are different than schools here in Japan, but your teaching methods seem to be somewhat…odd," he said.

In truth, the Vice-principal was not so certain that hiring this man as an English teacher had been such a wise idea. While his class had been learning English at a phenomenal rate, some of Largo's methods had disturbed the staff at the school.

"I teach the kids what they need to know to survive!" Largo retorted. "If you wish for them spend the rest of their lives in ignorance, unaware of the 3vil stalking the world, then say so! You will be the cause of their destruction." Largo's eyes were flashing dangerously as he moved closer to the shorter man. "Your ph34r is misplaced. J00 will get b34td0wn, and will take the students with you. "

The vice-principal was taken aback by Largo's heated reply. He had thought that Largo was not taking the children's education seriously, but he began to think he might have been wrong. He did seem to care about the children's well being and had not hurt any of them. Still, the odd field trips were something he would have to discuss with Largo, at some point. Before he could continue with his train of thought, the bell rang, and Largo walked away, headed towards his class. He hoped that he was wrong about Great Teacher Largo, and that he wasn't as crazy as some of the teachers have been saying.

As Largo walked towards his class, he was scanning the crowd of students looking for any signs that the Zombie Queen's infection was spreading. Most of the kids seemed normal enough, but he knew that they could turn at any point. He would remain on his guard. He was always on his guard.

"Stand, bow, be seated," said Junko, the class leader, as Largo walked in the door. When he reached the podium, Largo stood for a moment looking at the faces of his students.

"Who is missing today?" he asked, noticing three empty seats.

Junko raised her hand, and stood at Largo's acknowledgement.

"Maehara-san is out today for her mother's wedding. Tohya-san and Ping-san have not come to school, yet."

Neither the Zombie Queen, nor Piro's psychotic Sony were here today. Largo wondered where they were. Was the Queen planning a new diabolical plot to take over the minds of his students? Over his dead, cold body. He was glad that the Sony wasn't here, though. He was tired of her attacking him with brooms and telephone poles.

Tohya's Apartment 

Miho Tohya was not feeling very well. Her heart had been giving her more trouble than normal. She lay in bed most of the day, thinking. What was it about Ping that disturbed her? Was it the artificial emotions? Or was it the fact that Miho was responding to them? She really knew better than to get attached to a toy. She had learned that lesson in her conflict with Piro and Largo while playing 'EndGames'. They had only been toys to her. Toys that she could not really figure out, nor play with effectively, granted, but toys nonetheless.

It had become a personal thing for her, that game she had played with them. That they had avoided her manipulations, and overcome her ability to cheat the game had come almost as a personal affront. Now they were here in Tokyo. Her home.

Largo was proving to be as amusing as before, but he was so wrapped up in his little fantasies that it was really no different than the game for him. The only difference lay in the fact that he was totally unaware of his limitations. Miho was all too familiar with limitations.

Piro was not nearly so amusing. He could, to some extent, tell the difference between the real world and the game. He still treated girls as if they were characters in a game, to be sure, but was aware on a deeper level that they were real. If she wanted to play with Piro again, she would have to find a new way of doing so. However, after hearing Ping talk on and on about Piro, she was not so sure she wanted to get involved in his life again. Not to the extent she had been during the game. That may have been because of the trouble that it would cause for Ping.

Damn. There it was, again. Thinking about that robot. That girl.

Miho lay in bed for several hours thinking about it. In truth she was feeling much better than she had when she woke up this morning, but she was intent on figuring out the extent of her attachment to Ping. It was easier, sometimes, to just lie in bed and think.

She was still thinking when someone knocked on her door a couple hours after noon. She got up and answered the door, but all that was there was a small package sitting on her doorstep. She looked down the hallway leading to her door. No one was around.

She brought the package inside and looked at the wrapping. It was simple brown paper. Nothing was written on it, except her name. The only thing she could tell about it was that it was a videocassette of some kind. Her curiosity piqued, she decided to open it. The words, "Play Me," were scrawled in English on the front of the tape. Shrugging, she put the tape in her VCR.

Five minutes later, she ran out the door as fast as she could, the tape clutched tightly in her hand.


	2. Chapter 2

Megatokyo: NewGames.  
Chapter 2

_MegaGamers_

Piro was wiping down the sales counter when the loud thumps and bangs from overhead announced Largo's return from work. Erika had come back from break just a few minutes before, and was sitting by the window, looking at all the passerby. She looked up when she heard the noise, and then turned back to her quiet contemplation of Tokyo.

(Kimiko asked about you, this morning,) she said suddenly.

(She…she did?) asked Piro, whose heart had started pounding. (What did she say?)

(She wanted to make sure that your nose was better,) replied Erika. A few days before, Piro had broken his nose during a riot in front of the store.

(Oh, yeah! It's much better, now. I can breathe again, and it hardly ever hurts,) said Piro a little nervously. (How is Nanasawa doing?)

(She's good,) Erika answered. (She'll be coming by in a little bit, to see you.)

(To see…me?) Piro asked, incredulous.

(She'll make it seem like she just wanted to bring me something from home, or that she's just coming by to check up on me, but I know she's actually coming to see you.) Erika seemed a little sad, and slightly annoyed at the whole thing. She knew that Kimiko really liked Piro, but both of them were very spineless about admitting it to one another. Still, she liked trying to help it along.

(No, she wouldn't come all the way out here to see me,) said Piro. (Why would she do that?)

(Hmph,) snorted Erika.

(It's not like she's interested in me, or anything,) he said. Erika thought he was trying to convince himself, instead of her.

(If that's what helps you sleep at night,) she said, cryptically. (I can see you need all the help with that you can get,) she added, after hearing Largo shout something incomprehensible in the apartment.

(Wait a minute,) Piro said, suddenly. (If Largo's home, then where's Ping? She usually gets home about now, or calls to say she'll be late.)

(Maybe she forgot her phone,) Erika suggested.

Before any further discussion, the shop door opened, and Erika's roommate, Kimiko Nanasawa, came into the store. Piro's heart always skipped a couple of dozen beats when he saw her. She was so cute, and sweet, and he loved her smile. He was not sure if he was in love with her, but as much as he liked her, it really would not have surprised him. Kimiko was a rather unpretentious girl. She wasn't nearly as tall as her roommate, but she had a pixie-like quality that Piro found most alluring. Her face was one of soft curves and gentle lines; quite unlike Erika, who had a hard-edged look to her.

She had relatively low self-esteem, and seemed to think that she was doomed to failure. She was not incompetent, or unskillful. Besides her sewing abilities, she was also a talented voice-actress, who was currently recording for the character Kotone in Cubesoft's 'Sight.' And regardless of how she thought about herself, Piro was quite taken with her. Not only did he think she was cute, he liked talking to her and hearing about her work as a voice actress. He tried to be supportive for her, but his own self-effacing nature made him feel that he was bungling it up more often than not.

(Hi, Erika,) said Kimiko, as she walked in the door. (How are you doing, today?) Erika noticed that Kimiko looked at Piro through the entire greeting. She started looking at Erika only after she had finished talking. Piro might have noticed it, too, but he had been too busy examining his shoelaces.

(I'm good,) answered Erika. (Piro's over there,) she said, forestalling any excuses Kimiko had for coming by. She turned back toward the window so neither one would notice the slight smile she had.

Finally able to look up, again, Piro watched as Kimiko gracefully walked up to the counter. She was dressed rather plainly, in a blue t-shirt with a white swirl pattern circling the torso, and a loose pair of blue jeans. He thought she looked like an angel. She smiled as she looked at him.

(Hello, Piro, you do look better,) she said, noticing that the swelling was gonefrom his nose and the bruising was almost faded. (I'm so glad you weren't terribly hurt.)

She had been very worried about him. He had been hit so hard, and had been bleeding very badly. She hoped that he would be able to take better care of himself, in the future. She also hoped she would be able to help take care of him. He was becoming more and more important to her.

She found herself thinking about him at odd times. She would wonder what he would think of a particular scene as she was recording in the studio. At times, it almost felt like she was acting out her role as Kotone just for Piro. She knew that he was a big fan of the game 'Sight', and she would hate it if her voice acting ruined it for him, so she tried to portray Kotone in a way that Piro would appreciate, without taking away from her own thoughts on the character.

(Thanks, Nanasawa,) said Piro, blushing a bit. (I do feel better, now. And I'm not so scary to look at, anymore,) he finished, with a shy smile. (How are you doing?)

(I'm good, I suppose,) she said, a little sadly. (We did a scenario where Kotone gets really hurt by the protagonist, and I got a little too into it, I think.)

In truth, she pictured the protagonist of the game as Piro, and she was a little taken aback by way the she had felt imagining him betraying her like that. (It's ok, though. We did a 'date' scenario afterwards, and that helped to cheer me up!) she said, smiling again. (They went to a theme park, and Kotone spilled her tea on his lap!) she giggled.

Piro thought that she would have been really good at that scene. Kimiko worked part-time at an Anna Miller's restraunt as a waitress, and was well known for pouring coffee in the laps of offensive guests. The first time she had met Piro, she had accidentally thrown a full pot of coffee and hit him in the head. He didn't actually find out it was her until later, but he didn't mind it, really. He thought it was better than her throwing a pot of coffee at him on purpose.

**Three Years Ago:  
**_Silicon Valley, California_

Mr. Adamson was not a very robust man. He was short and skinny with trendy wire-framed glasses. His brown hair was thinning slightly and he had the squinty-eyed look of someone who spent too much time looking at a computer monitor. Anyone who looked at him would think that he was just some timeserving, corporate office flunky, incapable of an original thought. They would have been wrong.

Franklin Adamson was one of the head-developers for the insanely popular online game, 'EndGames'. Working with a crack team of programmers, Adamson and his longtime friend, Alfred Soren, built and managed one of the most complex and detailed online landscapes ever to grace the world of gaming. Soren had pulled in Akiko Yamadera, who was a celebrated character developer, to manage the player database. Yamadera had worked for several companies in Japan, doing some of the most revolutionary player/character interfaces ever devised.

It had been Yamadera who had developed the end user statistic algorithm(EUSA) that enabled the game to react more thoroughly to the player. The EUSA that she built collected real-time stats on each character based on the player's responses to certain stimuli. The end result was that the game reacted to the actual user rather than the character the user created. Though the users didn't realize this, it made the game much more enjoyable than one where there was always a predictable reaction from the game.

The three lead developers had decided to keep these statistics undisclosed in order to maintain their advantage over all other online games. They nicknamed the EUSA 'Excalibur', believing that it made their game as invincible as King Arthur had been reputed to be whenever he held the fabled sword.

'EndGames' had quickly become the most successful and popular game, ever. A large number of people got very rich because of that game. Before the end, it had seemed that 'EndGames' was going to rule the online gaming world for the next decade. The developer team was at the pinnacle of this digital monstrosity, and thought themselves to be untouchable. After all, 'Excalibur' protected them. No one knew about it, and therefore it did not exist.

Then 'SHE' started playing, and 'Excalibur' became the sword that would cut their Achilles Heel.

'She' was a user who had originally gone as unnoticed as the rest of the pixilated creations. She was a more adept player than most, but that was nothing to draw anyone's attention. There were always a few exceptional players.

Somehow though, this girl had found out about 'Excalibur' and learned how to exploit it. She manipulated the characters in the game so skillfully that most had no idea it was even happening, even when her manipulations spilled over into the users' real life. There were rumors that people had been driven mad by the game.

At first, it had been assumed that it was just a scare-tactic similar to the one involving another role-playing game a couple of decades ago. After a while, though, it became apparent that something was affecting all these people's lives. Hundreds of players worldwide so totally lost themselves in the game that it ruined their careers, their marriages, and their lives. Thousands more lost all interest in their social-lives in the real world, just so they could play for one more hour, one more day. 'She' had control of them all.

Adamson, Soren and Yamadera suspected that someone had found out about 'Excalibur' and were feverishly trying track down the user. With over ten million players across the planet, it was a difficult undertaking. They had to find the character that she was using, first. Once they found and expunged the character, they could track down the user.

Just as the trio had discovered which character had control of 'Excalibur,' two other players found her. The two players so completely ruined her character that her defeat completely crashed all of the 'EndGames' servers on the Eastern Seaboard. At some point in the confusion caused by the crash, all of the data she had on the network vanished. 'She' was gone as if she had never really been there. The three developers breathed a sigh of relief, and set about learning how she found 'Excalibur' so that it would never happen, again.

As the repercussions from the crash spread, more and more users learned about the existence of 'Excalibur'. The investigations began shortly thereafter, and the truth about 'Excalibur' quickly came to light. The Federal Trade Commission immediately shut the game down. Since there was no evidence of that girl's involvement, Adamson, Soren and Yamadera were removed from the gaming industry.

The trio had gone their separate ways after the flames had died down, but Adamson had not been willing to accept defeat so easily. He spent the following three years attempting to track her down. He used every contact he had to find her. He called in favors. He bribed and cajoled. He even resorted to blackmail. The only real information he had gained was that the user was living in Japan.

Adamson then contacted Soren. He informed Soren of his attempts to track down the girl, and that he needed Soren and Yamadera's help to find her. Soren had been reluctant to help, at first. He had managed to start a new career in logistics with a shipping company, and did not want to jeopardize this one. Adamson, however, had become a master at getting people to do things for him. He threatened Soren with all manner of nastiness and managed to get his assistance. The two men contacted Yamadera who was living in Okinawa, then.

This girl had wounded Yamadera's pride, and she wanted revenge as badly as Adamson did. Acting together, the three ruined developers quickly managed to locate this girl. Her name was Miho Tohya and she was living in Tokyo. It was time for vengeance.

**Present Day:**  
_Kanasago Industrial Park_

Adamson looked at his watch impatiently. Soren was late. He was supposed to have been here an hour ago. Adamson looked at his watch, again. He began pacing and swearing under his breath.

He was standing in an empty warehouse in an almost forgotten section of some Japanese industrial park.

"For chrissakes, will you calm down?" snapped Akiko Yamadera. She was a medium height Japanese woman, with a distinctively portly frame. Her dark brown hair hung about her round face in greasy strips. She may have been one of the top developers years ago, but she was probably the most ugly woman that Adamson had ever seen. She truly disgusted him, but he needed her now, and hated that fact.

"Tell me just why I should be calm, Aki. That spineless idiot is late, and we can't afford any more mistakes," snarled Adamson.

"First of all, it was your idea to bring that 'idiot' into this. Secondly, don't call me Aki, Adamson. We aren't friends, you know. If it weren't for this plan, I would have nothing to do with you!" Yamadera hated Adamson almost as much as she hated this Tohya girl. She blamed them both for ruining her career. "It was your idea to hide 'Excalibur' that got us into this mess!"

"So says the pot to the kettle! You were the one who wanted to put it in the game, in the first place!" he shouted.

Their argument was interrupted by the sound of a vehicle pulling up to the loading bay doors. The doors slid open to admit a plain white van. A beefy man was behind the wheel, and he looked much worse for wear. When he exited the van, he looked like he had been trampled by a herd of horses, and then had been dragged through the mud for a couple of hours.

"What the hell took you so long, Soren?" Adamson asked, angrily.

"Oh, I'm fine, Frank. No worries. I'm not hurt, at all," Soren said wearily. Alfred Soren was a very large example of the human species. He was not fat by any means. Tall and muscular, he looked more like a bodyguard than a former computer geek. He kept his sandy blond hair cut short and his chin was clean-shaven. He had a friendly personality, and was not at all suited for revenge. He blamed no one but himself for the end of his career. The only reason he was helping Adamson was to keep him from doing this Miho any real harm. If all Frank wanted to do was expose her actions in 'EndGames', then fine. If it were more than that, Soren vowed that he would try to stop it.

"Did you get her?" Yamadera asked, impatiently.

"Yeah, I got her, but it was damn hard," he said. He walked around the back of the van and opened up the door. He pulled out a burlap sack, and started carrying it over to a workbench that was set up in back of the warehouse. It had all kinds of wicked looking equipment scattered around on it.

"She put up a serious fight, you know. It was mostly luck that I managed to nab her."

He opened up the bag, and pulled an unconscious figure out of it.

Adamson laughed. It was a particularly nasty laugh.

"Just be glad that I was able to learn how to quickly deactivate a Sony SEVS unit," said Adamson as Soren laid Ping down on the workbench.

_Kabukicho, Shinjuku_

Very little information could be gleaned from watching the videotape that had been sent to Miho. It had been filmed using an old analog camcorder, and the cameraman had a rather unsteady hand. The only thing that Miho could see on the tape, other than Ping's partially disassembled form, was that the abductors were inside some abandoned warehouse. Ping was lying on a beaten up workbench, with her back access panel opened. Miho could see that the balance control motors and temperature regulators had been removed, and her main processor board now lay exposed.

Hanging above Ping's exposed inner workings was what appeared to be a homemade electro-magnet. Judging by the telltale lights still flashing regularly on the processor board, it was clear that Ping's abductors had not yet activated the magnet. This was one piece of good news.

The other piece of good news was that it seemed to Miho that whoever had opened Ping's access panels had known what they were doing, and that it would be fairly easy to reassemble her, later. Miho needed to figure out who her new enemies were.

There was no dialog on the tape, nor did the kidnappers show their faces. Miho was furious with them. Not only had they dragged someone else in to the mix, they were too cowardly to show who they were. She knew that she needed some information, and also knew that for information of this nature, she had to go and see Messenger.

Messenger was just that: a messenger. He was not directly attached to any organization or group in the Tokyo underground. The only connection he had to anyone was his ability. He could remember any message, no matter the length or complexity, and he could completely forget all details of the message after it's delivery. He was the best messenger to ever enter Tokyo's darker side.

He was a valuable source of information, as well. If he knew something that wasn't a part of a message agreement he had made, then that information was for sale, but only to the right people. Because of his extraordinary memory skills, he knew a good deal about the criminal workings in Tokyo. The only reason no one had ever put out a contract on Messenger was his usefulness and trustworthiness. That, and the fact that he never spoke to the authorities.

He and Miho had known each other for some time. She supposed that she could consider him a friend, but her feelings towards him were a little distant. She knew that he did consider her a friend, and was willing to go to great lengths to help her if she asked. She was also very careful to only ask for his help when she truly needed it since his services weren't free, even for her.

It took Miho a little while to find where Messenger was located. He changed residences like Americans changed cars, and never bothered to file a change of address form. Still, she knew he was somewhere in Kabukicho, and she knew what to look for. She walked through the back alleys, looking for a door with an exclamation point painted on it. After several false leads and a few carefully asked questions, she managed to find the right door. Taking a deep breath, she knocked.

She waited patiently for a few minutes, and the door creaked open just enough to allow her to hear the person on the other side.

(What do you want?) asked a gruff and harsh voice.

(I need to see Messenger, Oji,) replied Miho.

Oji opened the door just wide enough to allow Miho room to enter. Oji was a very lank and scrawny man, who looked like a whip that had been given bones. He was reputed to be as fast as a whip, too. He played the role of Messenger's bodyguard/butler, but he knew it was mostly for show. Messenger didn't need a bodyguard, since no one in the crime world would dare attack him. The power of trust and information was a great thing.

(He's in the back. I think he's expecting you,) grated Oji.

(That's not too surprising,) said Miho.

She walked through the small, dingy room toward a wooden door set in the back wall. She hated this kind of set-up. It was all for show, and a waste of her time. But, if she wanted Messenger's help, she would have to play it his way. She knocked on the back door.

(Come on in, butterfly,) answered a rather pleasant sounding voice. Messenger always called her 'butterfly' for some reason. She'd never been able to figure out why, but tolerated it because of his usefulness.

Miho walked into the room, and was surprised at how plush it was compared to his last environment. Formerly, he had stayed in an abandoned building somewhere near Chuo Street, and had to put a tent over his bed to keep the water off of it. Now, his room was comfortably furnished with deep pile carpeting and a large western style bed.

Messenger himself was as nondescript as it was possible for a single human to be. Bland in appearance, demeanor and dress, he could blend in to any crowd and not seem out of place. It was part of why he was so good at what he did.

(You've definitely upset somebody, haven't you, butterfly?) he asked.

(It's no big surprise,) said Miho. She had done enough over the years that the odds of someone coming to extract revenge were pretty high. All she needed to know was who it was, and what they wanted. (What do you know about them,) she asked.

(You don't want to discuss price?) he asked, surprised. Information wasn't free, after all. Even his little butterfly knew that.

(We can settle it later, Messenger. You know I can meet your terms,) said Miho, surprising Messenger, again. Normally, she would haggle him down to almost nothing before they agreed on a price. As impatient as she seemed, he might just take this one as a favor, he thought.

(Very well, then,) he said. (Do the names Adamson and Soren mean anything to you?) he asked.

(Yes, as a matter of fact, they do,) she replied calmly. She only sounded calm. She knew those names, all too well. They were the developers from 'EndGames'. Messenger had only mentioned Adamson and Soren, but Miho was willing to bet that Yamadera was also involved. Adamson and Soren were not really Miho's concern.

Adamson was a pompous windbag who could talk a hard line, but was utterly incapable of making a move on his own. Soren's involvement was a bit of a surprise, since he was well known as being a nice guy. Revenge didn't seem his style.

Yamadera was different animal altogether. Of all the people from 'EndGames' Miho had assumed that it would be Yamadera who came after her. It fit with what she knew of the woman, after all.

After Miho had discovered 'Excalibur', she decided to do some research on the game developers. She wanted to know who had placed such an ingenious system in the game. He roundabout search eventually lead her to Akiko Yamadera. Yamadera had grown up in an abusive family, with an alcoholic mother. The only refuge she had from her home life had been school, it seemed. She spent most of her time studying in the library, learning about subjects that were way beyond her years.

Once she graduated high school, Yamadera was accepted at Tokyo University, and quickly outshone all of her peers. In her senior year in college there was some sort of falling out with her only friend over a boy they both liked. Yamadera had beaten the other girl so badly that she had actually fractured her own arm in two places. She was ejected from the University, and began to scramble around for a job. She eventually wound up working at a software developing company as a clerk. When her boss tried to fire her for breaking in to his office and hacking his computer, she blackmailed him into giving her a promotion, using data she had copied from his personal files. Once Yamadera had her foot in the door, she quickly took over the position of lead developer, and fired her old boss.

Yamadera had secured herself a place in the gaming industry, and used that to her advantage. She never stayed tied down to any one company for very long. Instead, she went to work for whichever company seemed to be putting out the most advanced game systems. It didn't take much asking on Alfred Soren's part to get her to join the team working on 'EndGames', which eventually destroyed the career that she had so carefully made for herself. It was no small wonder why she would be looking for revenge.

(Has the name Yamadera, come up, at all?) Miho asked.

(If you mean Akiko Yamadera, then no, not since your little escapade with…) Messenger's eyes widened. "EndGames," he said almost reverently. The truth was, the stunt this little girl had pulled with 'EndGames' had impressed Messenger to no end.

(That's why the first two names were so familiar to me,) he said. (You think they are here for revenge for 'EndGames', and that if those two are here then Yamadera must be as well.) He said it as a statement, since he knew the answer.

(Yes,) answered Miho. (I'm certain she's the one running the show.)

(If it's Yamadera, then you have problems, butterfly. Yamadera is a very hard woman.) Messenger was suddenly afraid for this girl.

(Do you know where they are, Messenger? They have a…friend of mine, and I want to get her back,) said Miho.

(I have no idea where they are, I'm afraid. They certainly didn't go through any of the normal people for a hideout, so I assume they are squatting somewhere.) Messenger seemed a little embarrassed about it. In truth, the moment he heard about the two men kidnapping the robot girl, he started asking questions. The fact that he had been unable to find anything out meant that someone was covering these people. He was still trying to find out who it was.

(How did you find out about all this?) Messenger asked.

(They sent me a videotape,) she said, pulling the tape and packaging out of her shoulder bag. Messenger snorted with contempt. Videotapes and amateurs always seemed to go together. Video was nothing but good evidence.

(Leave the tape with me, and I'll call you if I find anything. Be careful, butterfly. This woman is dangerous,) Messenger said grimly.

(I'll be fine. Please let me know if you do find anything, Messenger. Goodbye,) she said, and excused herself.

After viewing the tape, Messenger reevaluated his opinion of the kidnappers. They may be amateurs, but they weren't the stupid kind. With this girl being a robot, they wouldn't have to worry about the police, or with the organized crime factions. The only thing the abductors were actually guilty of was theft. The video itself yielded no information, except to confirm that someone was backing these people. The equipment on the workbench may have been old, but it wasn't the type of stuff you could pick up at a local computer shop.

The warehouse itself was another clue, since it had to be privately owned. All of the warehouses in Tokyo that had been abandoned were claimed by at least one criminal element, and if Yamadera had been keeping the robot girl in one of those warehouses, Messenger would know it.

So, he had to stop looking at possible criminal assistance, and start looking for helpers that were a little more upstanding.

(Gods and Dogs, I hate dealing with honest citizens,) Messenger said morosely. Perhaps he would charge her, after all. His phone began to ring.


	3. Chapter 3

Megatokyo: NewGames.  
Chapter 3

_MegaGamers_

When Piro walked into the apartment, he was relieved that there wasn't any smoke in the air. Largo's repairs must have truly just been repairs. Largo himself was sitting on the floor, playing some fighting game on one of the store's game testing consoles.

"Yeah! Feel the p41n!" Largo shouted as he waved the game controller around, maniacally. "One legendary b34td0wn, coming right up." He was grinning in a way that made one reach slowly for a straightjacket.

The rest of the day in the store had gone by fairly quickly, with Piro and Kimiko had spent the time chatting aimlessly about 'Sight' and other inconsequential matters. Piro thought that the afternoon was a success for him, since he had managed to avoid saying anything blindingly stupid all day. There had been some awkward pauses in the conversation, but nothing that Piro felt justified in beating himself up over. After the store had closed Erika had invited him and Kimiko out to dinner.

Piro had asked if Largo could come along. In truth, he would have rather not invited Largo, but Piro knew that there wasn't any food in the apartment aside from some cereal and instant noodles. It had been several days since Largo had eaten a real meal, and Piro didn't consider beer to be an acceptable form of nourishment.

Erika had been hesitant to allow Largo to come along, since he was prone to causing trouble, but had reluctantly agreed on the condition that Largo wasn't completely drunk.

Piro didn't see any empty beer cans lying around, so he knew that Largo was at least somewhat sober. He walked over and tapped Largo on the head.

"We're all going to get some food," he said. "Do you want to come along?"

Largo sat up straight. "Are we going somewhere that has beer?" he asked, hopefully. He had been feeling dismayed by the lack of beer in the apartment.

"I don't know," said Piro. He hoped that Erika would think to pick somewhere that didn't serve Largo's beverage of choice. "Hayasaka and Nanasawa are waiting downstairs, so hurry up and get…" Piro trailed off as he looked around the room, noticing that something was missing. He suddenly remembered the conversation he'd started with Erika earlier in the day.

"Largo," Piro began, "Has Ping come home, yet?"

"The Sony? I haven't seen it since I left this morning," Largo said, dismissively. Largo was actually glad he hadn't seen Ping today. While Ping was good for attacking Zombies and rampaging monsters, Largo never fully trusted her. The fact that she was always hanging around with that Gothic chix0r only served to intensify that distrust.

"You mean she didn't go to school?" asked Piro.

"Nope," replied Largo. "The Zombie Queen wasn't there, either. She's probably enlisted the help of the Sony in her plans for world destruction," he said, trying, yet again, to convince Piro of the danger the world was in. "They might even be working together to take over all the electronics in the city. They're probably planning on using them to spy out our movements! I must search for bugs!" he said frenetically, and began tearing around the room, looking for any signs of surveillance equipment.

There was a knock on the door.

"Hold on a second," Piro called out.

"Is Largo dressed?" came Erika's voice, somewhat muted by the steel door.

Piro stared at the door in a panic, thinking about Kimiko's reaction to the state of his room.

"Yeah, he's dressed," said Piro, who began trying to hastily clean the room, before Kimiko could see the terrible state it was in.

The door to the apartment opened, and Erika walked in followed by Kimiko. Erika was holding her cell phone in her hand.

"Oi," said Erika, "Are you two about ready? I've already called a nearby restraunt and had them hold a table for us."

Largo looked up from his close examination of the coffee pot. "Let me see your phone," he said suddenly.

"Excuse me?" asked Erika.

"Your phone," he repeated, "Let me see your phone." He held out his hand.

Erika handed him the phone, with a puzzled look on her face. After a few seconds of examination, he cried out. "Ah! The 3vil has even taken over your phone! Look at the script!" he exclaimed, pointing at the Japanese characters on the screen. "There is d4ng3r here." His eyes narrowed. "I must disable this device."

"Largo, give the phone back to her," Piro said slowly, as if speaking to small child. He quickly searched around the apartment for his own phone. He found it lying underneath a pile of scorched Ethernet cards. He turned it on, hoping that Largo hadn't done anything to it.

"Good thinking, Piro!" Largo congratulated him. "Your phone is also at high risk of infiltration by the undead machine infection."

"I'm just looking for Tohya's number, Largo," said Piro with exasperation. She would probably know where Ping was, and he didn't want Ping to get mad at him because he forgot about her.

"What's going on?" asked Erika impatiently. "Are you inviting someone else?" She grabbed her phone out of Largo's hands as he was reaching for a screwdriver.

"No, I'm not inviting anyone," said Piro, searching through the 'received calls' menu on the phone. He saw the number that he thought was Tohya's.

"Then what are you doing?" Erika asked.

"I'm trying to call Tohya, since Ping's not around. I just want to make sure she's OK before we go."

The phone number he dialed rang for several seconds, until a voicemail message sounded. (This is me. Is that you?) came Miho's unearthly smooth voice, slightly distorted by the recording. A beep sounded.

(Tohya-san, this is Piro. Umm…is Ping with you? I haven't seen her all day, and I was just wondering if she was with you. If she is, can you let her know I was checking on her? Thanks.) He ended the call. He was pretty sure that Ping was with Tohya, since they had stayed the night together before. Feeling better, he turned back to Largo and the two women. (Sorry about that,) he said to Nanasawa, (I was just checking on Ping. She hasn't been home today.)

(I hope she's ok,) she said.

(I'm sure she's fine,) said Piro. (She's probably with Tohya-san, and they're just not answering the phone. Anyway, let's go.) Piro walked over, and took the lamp out of Largo's hand. "Food, Largo," Piro reminded him.

"Yes! We need nourishment! We need B33R!"

Piro thought Largo needed therapy.

_Washington State, USA_

There have been many offices in the world that were designed to impress or intimidate visitors. Expensive and ornate furnishings, deep burgundy carpeting that had cost over $180 a yard, Corinthian leather chairs, and massive teakwood desks were some of the accoutrements used to create such an effect. In some cases, however, they were merely gilding on the lily. Sometimes, it was the occupant that commanded such attention.

For the man seated behind the desk in one such office, that was not the case. He needed all the help he could get in maintaining an appearance of great power. Admittedly, he was a very rich and powerful man, but he had not achieved such wealth by a commanding presence. He had gained his fortune by intelligence and proper planning. He was very methodical in his financial gains, and though he was normally a very scrupulous man, he knew that one person couldn't achieve the kind of power he wielded by being totally honest.

He knew that he had to maintain a competitive edge, at all costs.

New information regarding certain advances in electronics and robotics came across his desk several months ago. They were the type of advancements that could shatter his company's hold over the world of computers. His competition somehow managed to successfully build a robot girl. He spent many weeks researching this robot, but turned up very little useful information. He learned that the robot had been given to a Beta tester named Tsubasa, though the boy's whereabouts were currently unknown.

For a short period of time the businessman had given up on locating the robot girl and started his team of R&D specialists on a project to develop their own. The robotic application had been long completed, but they were missing a crucial bit of software that would allow the robot to be truly functional. After hearing about some more recent disturbances in Tokyo, the businessman was convinced that the robot girl was still in Japan, and resumed his search.

A contact of his informed him that three game developers that had drawn so much media attention a couple of years ago were in Tokyo, and they were looking for the robot, as well. His contact had put him in communication with Ms. Yamadera, who seemed overjoyed at the idea of receiving his assistance. He told her what he wanted from her in exchange for his help, which was an analysis of the robot, and copy of it's software. He was very cautious during their conversations, giving this woman no information that would allow any of this to be traced back to him. That made it somewhat difficult for him to get in contact with his new cohorts, but the anonymity was well worth it. Besides, he knew who the very best messenger in Tokyo was, and knew how to get in touch with him.

_Kanasago Industrial Park_

Messenger walked up to the door of the seemingly abandoned warehouse, and knocked. The windows were painted, and the doors tightly sealed. It appeared to be just another abandoned building. The door opened slightly and a large silhouette stood in the aperture, framed by a bright halo of light.

"Who are you?" the figure demanded, suspiciously. Messenger was disgusted all over again. Amateurs. First, they answered the door to a strange knock, then they act as cagey as possible. The only thing they had done right was having the big guy answer the door.

"I'm a messenger sent by Yamadera's associate," he said. He hoped that Yamadera had at least told her companions about her backer.

The erstwhile guard, who Messenger had identified as Soren, grunted and moved out of the way in order to let Messenger in.

Messenger looked around the mostly empty warehouse as he walked towards the only separated room in the building. He saw the table where the robot girl was lying, immobilized. A single white van that had seen better days sat near the large bay doors and a tarp covering something large in the opposite corner. It was impossible to discern what the object was.

He was ushered into the office where Adamson and Yamadera were shouting at each other. 'Strife among peers, is it?' Messenger thought, pleased.

"Who the hell is this?" asked Adamson, heatedly. He was distinctively red in the face.

"He says he's got a message for Ms. Yamadera," said Soren.

The lady in question pushed her way past Adamson.

(So? Whose this message from?) the ugly woman snarled, glaring at Messenger in suspicion.

(It's from the gentleman who contacted you a few weeks ago,) he replied somewhat cryptically. (It's more in the nature of a question, really.)

(You mean that Turkish man?) she asked.

Surprised by the show of intelligence, Messenger quirked his eyebrows slightly.

(No, I mean the American one,) he replied.

Yamadera relaxed slightly. (So what the hell does he want to know?)

Messenger paused, calling up the message from memory. "He said, 'Tell them I am checking up on them, and I want to know what they are doing. Ask them if they have the data I requested for my end of the bargain, and when can I expect it. Call me back with their answer."

Yamadera growled, quietly.

(You tell him that things are going smoothly. The little girl is playing right into our hands.) She smirked in satisfaction, while Messenger almost choked from holding back a laugh. (After she goes to the cops, she'll figure out that they won't do anything for a robot, and then she'll start to look for us. We'll let her find us, of course, and after that…well, let's just say I've got some ideas,) she said, with a glance at the tarp. (As for the data, he'll have that when we finish up here. I'll send it to him then.)

(Is that all you wish for me to tell him?) he asked, politely. (I think he may be entitled to know about the details of your ideas.)

She took a menacing step towards him. She was clearly upset at the mere hint that she wasn't the one calling the shots.

(I've told you everything I'm going to tell you!) she screamed, livid. (Now get out of here, errand boy, or it'll be you on that workbench!)

"If you'll excuse me, then," he said politely, as if she had only thanked him for his efforts. As he walked, he firmly committed her message to memory. He chuckled at her attempt at threatening him. 'Amateurs', he thought again.

Shortly after Messenger had received the call from the businessman, he had dispatched Oji to locate Miho. He was told to bring her to the entrance across the street from Kanasago Industrial Park, and to wait for him. Oji had performed his employer's task with his usual efficiency, and the two of them were waiting in Messenger's new car when he exited the park.

(Good evening, butterfly,) Messenger greeted the girl, as he sat down in the back seat.

(Hello, Messenger,) she returned.

Oji started the car, and began driving.

(I've got some good information for you, my dear,) he said in a self-satisfactory manner.

He told her everything he could about what he had seen inside the warehouse, including general distances and layout. He also told her about the apparent discord between Adamson and Yamadera. She smiled very slightly at that piece of good news, though her smile vanished rapidly.

(What about Ping?) Miho asked. (Was she still there?)

(The robot girl is there, but they've done some more work to her. They've hooked her up to some sort of device, but I couldn't tell what it was. There are six or seven strange wires coming out of her back. They also took the magnet down. I guess that was just supposed to be a threat to get your attention.)

(That part worked. They have my full and undivided attention,) she said, grimly.

She asked Oji to drop her off at the next corner and exited the car with a further promise to be careful. 'That was a stupid request,' she thought.

She was always careful.

Now she just had to come up with a plan to get Ping back.


	4. Chapter 4

Megatokyo: NewGames.  
Chapter 4

_Shinjuku_

Throngs of pedestrians packed the narrow streets of Shinjuku early in the evening either winding their way home or on their way to meet friends at a local bar. Most of them were so wrapped up in their own world that they paid absolutely no attention to the short, slim girl walking in their midst. Neither the quietly dark outfit that modestly accented the smooth lines of her figure, nor the impossible ribbons in her hair caught anyone's eye. Of course, none of those people were worth Miho's attention, either. Her thoughts were centered on Ping and all the possible rescue options she had.

She had briefly considered contacting Piro and Largo for assistance, but decided against that option. Piro might make a good distraction, but Largo would only want to go running in there and would destroy everything in the warehouse, Ping included. Using the rather sketchy description Messenger had given her, she managed to locate the warehouse, but because the last thing she needed to do was to get caught, she left the area in order to acquire a few necessary items. She needed to get hands on some surveillance equipment before she did anything else.

Miho reached into her bag and pulled out her cell phone, intent on calling some of her contacts in the darker corners of Tokyo. Her 'message waiting' light was flashing. She looked at her call log, and noticed the number of the phone she had given to Piro. She dialed her voicemail number.

'(Tohya-san, this is Piro. Umm…is Ping with you? I haven't seen her all day, and I was just wondering if she was with you. If she is, can you let her know…)' she listened to the rest of the message, standing in a darkened alcove.

'Poor Piro', she thought. 'I really ought to call him back and tell him something.'

She stood there for several minutes internally debating the wisdom of calling him. Eventually, she decided against calling him since letting him keep his assumption that Ping was with her was easier than fabricating a story about Ping's condition.

Satisfied with her decision, she called her seedier acquaintances, hoping they had the gear she needed.

_Daidaiya's Chanto Dining_

The restraunt Erika had chosen for the four of them to eat at was fairly impressive. The entrance way was tiled in white marble with bluish veins running through it. A large aquarium displaying all manner of sea-life sat in an alcove to the right of the doorway. The chandelier above the hostess station gave an air of class to the foyer. The service staff wore snappy red and white jackets over a white shirt, and smiled at every guest they passed. For all the finery in the restraunt, however, Piro noticed that neither he, nor Largo were under dressed. Several groups having dinner were wearing clothing just as casual as the rest of the quartet. In fact, the hostess didn't even bat an eye at Largo's 'No pants…No problem!' t-shirt as she seated them at their table.

Piro seated himself next to Largo, across the table from Kimiko and Erika. The menu boasted prices low enough that Piro felt fairly safe telling Erika that he could pay for Largo's dinner, as well as his own. He would just make sure to get Largo to pay him back. As Kimiko looked over the menu, which had a dazzling array of choices, she made many comments about wanting to try several different dishes. Erika merely nodded in agreement to each outburst, having quickly decided on a spicy Thai dish that looked appealing to her.

While Piro perused his own menu, he surreptitiously kept his eyes on Largo in case he started to say something that would upset or disturb anyone in the surrounding area. Between watching Largo, and trying to think of something to talk to Kimiko about, Piro took quite a long time figuring out what he wanted to eat.

As for Largo, he wasn't even looking at the entrée portion of the menu, giving his full attention to the beer section. The restraunt carried a limited selection of beer, which caused Largo to spend several minutes deliberating over each possible choice, all the while muttering things like, "Looks too watery…hmm, this is a bold tasting brew, but weak." The rather small selection of quality beverages dismayed Largo to no end.

Only a few moments after having been taken to their table, a friendly-looking and soft-spoken waiter came to take their drink orders.

Erika and Kimiko both ordered a sweet tea with lemon and a glass of water. Piro considered ordering the same, but settled for only the water to counteract the money Largo was going to spend on beer. Largo opened his mouth to place his order, but before he could order one of each beer, Piro interjected, (Just bring him a single beer, please. I don't care which one.) Largo must have guessed what Piro had said to the waiter, because he shot Piro a somewhat disgusted look.

The waiter returned fairly quickly with their drinks, and then took their dinner orders. Before everyone had placed his or her orders, Largo managed to quaff his initial pint, much to the waiter's surprise, and loudly called for a fresh glass.

Erika had planned for Largo's behavior, and as his second pint arrived, she began telling Largo all about a new game that was going to be released in a few weeks. Largo sat in enraptured silence, listening to Erika's dissertation.

"So, it's more than just a normal fighting game, but less than a Role-Playing Game. Still, it should manage to keep even you occupied for a while," she snapped her napkin open, and laid it in her lap. The waiter arrived mere seconds later with their food.

When Largo's plate appeared in front of him, he looked at his beer in surprise. There were only two or three swallows missing from it. He couldn't remember the last time he'd allowed a beer to sit unattended for so long. He picked up his glass, intent on rectifying that gross injustice.

When he was only slightly more than halfway through with his draft, however, a commotion at the front door of the restraunt distracted him. He looked over to see a tall masked figure with spiked hair leaping across several tables, headed in his direction.

_Kanasago Industrial Park_

(Hmm…looks like everyone's in there,) Miho said softly to herself, looking through a pair of infrared binoculars she had borrowed from an acquaintance. The details of the activities within the warehouse were difficult to see, but they gave her an idea of her opponents' actions. She scanned the binos across the length of the building, noting the location of the table that Ping was apparently lying on. It was set far enough back from the door that it would make any sort of "smash and grab" rescue impossible.

She crept silently towards the building, her dark clothing allowing her to blend easily into the shadows surrounding the warehouse. She stopped every few minutes to check the positions of everyone in the building. As she moved closer, she could discern the actual shapes of the occupants. Yamadera and Adamson were in what looked like an enclosed office space, judging by the ambient heat surrounding them. Adamson was gesticulating wildly, and appeared to be screaming. Yamadera's heat signature grew steadily brighter, an indication that she was getting angrier by the minute. Soren was hunched over at the workbench, and looked to be typing on a keyboard. He reached over and touched something on a panel that was on his left, and suddenly the tarpaulin-covered mound began emitting a heat signature of it's own. He walked over and lifted one corner of the tarp. He knelt down in front of the form, and the two heat sources blended together, obscuring what little detail there was.

(Damn,) she swore quietly. While the IR was good for seeing who was where in the building, it didn't give her enough clarity to see exactly what was going on in there. She decided to risk taking a closer look. She crept even closer to the building, making very little noise as she moved, and circled around the back of the building. She closely examined each of the windows on the wall, looking for any hint of light that would allow her to see inside. When none of the windows offered her a view, she began to circle the building, hoping to find some way of seeing inside.

On the left side of the building, she noticed a service door. She figured that it was probably for some of the workers that used to be employed by the owner of the warehouse. When she got closer to the door, she noticed that the hinges were oiled and clean, and that she might be able to open the door a little bit, if no one was looking in that direction.

She checked the infrared binos again and saw that Soren was back at the keyboard, and had his back to the service door. Yamadera and Adamson were still arguing, and it looked like it was going to go on for several more minutes. She crept up to the door and began to pick the lock as quietly as she could.

Yamadera was getting tired of Adamson's repeated screaming fits. He never said anything original, anymore. He just kept spouting out the same old, worn out crap.

"You think you're in charge? I'm the one who set this up! You'd still be rotting away in Okinawa if I hadn't brought you into this…blah, blah, blah."

She was growing angrier by the minute. She didn't feel like wasting any more time on the pompous ass. When Adamson paused for breath, she moved with surprising quickness and backed him into a corner.

"Shut up for one goddamned minute, you American prick. I don't care if you were the one who started this. What I do care about is making sure that it gets done right, and you are incapable of doing that," her pudgy face was so close to his that her rank breath was fogging his glasses. "From now on, I don't want to hear a single noise out of you, unless it's acknowledging an order, do you get me?" She paused for a brief second, waiting for his answer. "DO YOU GET ME?" she screamed so hard that spittle struck him in the face. Adamson's only response was to push past Yamadera, and stalk angrily out of the office.

Yamadera's control over her emotions had been slipping for the past few days. Each and every time she thought about the way Tohya had ruined her career she felt her sanity slip a little bit more. She had seen it starting to happen when she was living in Okinawa, but had managed to control her thoughts. She did not enjoy it whenever she lost control. At least, she didn't enjoy it when she had realized what she had done. She had truly felt guilty for hurting that girl in college, no matter how much she had enjoyed pummeling her so ferociously. While she had been ruthless in pursuing her career, she was very controlled. She didn't often lose her temper, and the only person she'd ever physically injured was her classmate.

Then Adamson had to show up and invite her along on his little vendetta. At first she had waffled over whether or not to join him. She knew what such an undertaking would do to her. Still, as her thoughts kept drifting back to Adamson's invitation, she thought about how Tohya had humiliated her. She wound up convincing herself that Tohya had been playing with 'Excalibur' in order to get to Yamadera, personally. She was positive that the girl had planned on destroying her life.

That little girl was responsible for ruining her life, and would therefore pay with hers. The same old rage-fueled madness that had caused her to break her own arm while assaulting a classmate was coming back, and in full-force. The only difference was that she wouldn't be the doing the hitting, this time. They had a new toy, for that. She was finding it more and more difficult to hide her feelings from her companions, however. She knew they would react badly to it, especially that big Yank, Soren. Speaking of him, she wanted to see how the work on the Sony was coming along. She paused before walking out of the office, taking a few breaths to calm herself down.

Yamadera came out of the office behind him, and walked over to the workbench.

"Is it working?" she asked without preamble.

"The user control interface transferred smoothly once I blocked the Emotional Feedback Regulator from the EDS unit," Soren replied. "I thought it would be better to filter that part out."

"The last thing anyone needs is this thing to get weepy," Yamadera agreed.

"I think we're ready for a start-up test, if you want," Soren said. "You want me to get Frank over here?" he asked.

Yamadera only spat rudely in response to his question. "Start it up," she said.

Adamson was angrier than he could ever remember having been. Yamadera was daring to challenge his authority, and had started behaving as if she was calling the shots. The two of them had been arguing constantly for the past two days. The only progress that Adamson had seen in his original plan had been the abduction of the robot girl. He had learned that the robot girl was one of Tohya's favorite toys, and had already decided to steal it to use as leverage against Tohya when Yamadera announced her communication with that guy in America. That had only been the start of Yamadera's interference with his beautifully crafted plan.

Just thinking about that woman's machinations got his stomach churning with rage, and he was certain that he was developing an ulcer. He decided to step outside and get a breath of fresh air. He walked to the back of the warehouse, and opened the door cursing at the way the doorknob stuck for a second. He stepped out into the cool nighttime air, and wished that he still smoked. He walked around aimlessly for a few minutes, trying to calm his gut. While he was trying some controlled breathing exercises he heard a strange noise from inside the warehouse, and poked his head in through the door he had left open. The minute he heard the hum of an electrical generator, he knew what was going on.

"Damn that woman," he said irritably and stalked inside, leaving the service door wide open. He never noticed the set of lock-picks that fallen to the ground after he had opened the door.

Misgiving and doubts plagued Soren as he began the start-up sequence on the other unit. Granted, he had initially looked forward to this part of the project, given his long-time enjoyment of robots. It was fun and interesting being a part, no matter how small, of making them work. However, this new robot wasn't quite what he had envisioned assisting with. His thoughts were interrupted the tarp covering the unit began to move. The robot was standing up.

As it lifted itself from it's standby position, the tarp fell away to reveal the shining green metal "skin" of the unit. When it had completely arisen, the robot stood almost seven feet high. Unlike the Sony EDS robot, this unit was only designed to resemble a human superficially. It more closely appeared to be a modernized suit of armor, actually. The outer covering fit the unit in segments, with flexible joints. The only part of the robot that was not comprised of metal was the visual input receptor, which looked like a pane of mirrored glass. The total effect was rather striking, and somewhat intimidating. The large "X" blazoned across it's chest only server to heighten the implicit threat.

: START-UP COMPLETE. X-BOX GAMING ENHANCEMENT AUTOMATON UNIT 00-00-01 ONLINE. :

The robot had a deep, slightly mechanical voice. It rumbled through Soren, causing him to experience a shiver of dread.

"Run operations procedure, self-diagnostic," Soren said, telling the unit to bring it's software online. The unit stood there for several seconds, as it processed the command.

: BOX-BOT ACTIVE. USER CONTROL PLATFORM CONNECTION AT NINETY-SEVEN PERCENT EFFICIENCY. ALL ONBOARD EQUIPMENT: FUNCTIONING NORMALLY. ARMAMENT STATUS: NONE. WAITING FOR INPUT. :

"What the hell are you two doing?" Adamson asked angrily. "I though we weren't going to start this thing up!"

"What do you mean, Frank? Yamadera said you agreed to make sure it worked," Soren said with a slightly confused look on his face.

"I don't give a damn what you think," Yamadera growled, ignoring Soren. "I've got my own plans for this thing. It's going to help us get to Ms. Tohya faster than anything else will. I'm sick of waiting."

She reached in her pocket and handed Soren a CD labeled, "Initialization Protocol."

"Install that, Soren," she said.

"What is that?" he asked, suspiciously. "The unit is already configured. I integrated the data from the Sony EDS unit, so it shouldn't need anything except to hook a game into the user control platform."

"It's just a little program I whipped up for the girl." Yamadera smiled in a very nasty sort of way. "It's a location program that will allow us to find Ms. Tohya rather than waiting for her to come to us," she added. Yamadera was fully aware of Soren's pacifistic nature, and knew that if he were completely aware of what that program would make the robot do, he would have run out on them, right then. She normally wouldn't have minded, but she still needed him to at least install the program, since he was the only one who knew how to write new software into the damned things operating system.

"As long as it won't actually harm her," he said, somewhat doubtfully.

"Trust me," she said, sweetly. "Just trust me."

Soren nodded, and inserted the disc into the robot's user control.

The minute she had heard the footsteps approaching the door, Miho had been certain she was going to be caught. She tried, without success, to remove her lock-picks from the knob, until it started to jiggle. She quickly ran around the corner of the building, hoping the shadows would cover her well enough to avoid detection. After a few minutes, she heard Adamson's voice as he cursed Yamadera. She thought she heard him go back inside, but did not hear the door close. She decided to wait a few more moments, until she heard a strange clanking noise coming from inside the warehouse. She decided to risk a peek around the corner, and noticed that Adamson had gone back in side. She crept up to the open doorway, and risked a quick peek inside.

Miho watched as the robot arose to stand on it's own two feet. The large "X" on its chest told her everything she needed to know about it. The knowledge made her go somewhat cold inside. It was all well and good for Sony to develop a robot to facilitate its dating sim games, but for Microsoft to try and do the same was unthinkable. A good number of Sony's games for the PS2 were fairly placid. There were quite a few violence-oriented titles out there, but not nearly as much as that other company had.

Most of Microsoft's games were the kind of 'guns blazing-building wrecking' games that Largo enjoyed. How they expected to have a practical, in-home use for the thing was beyond her. She also now realized that rescuing Ping alone was also now beyond her. She was going to need help, and she was going to need it fast. She abandoned all subtlety and ran away from the building as fast as she could.

: NEW PROTOCOL: ACCEPTED. BASIC ANATOMY FILES: INSTALLED. PURSUIT AND RECOVERY BATCH MODULE 31:25: ACTIVE. TARGET LOCATION PROGRAM: ACTIVE. BEGINNING SEARCH. :

The robot took two steps forward, and swiveled it's head around, as if actually looking for something.

"What the hell is it doing?" Soren asked Yamadera. "Why does it need basic anatomy?" Soren started to ask. Revelation dawned in his eyes, as Yamadera confirmed his fear.

"It's searching for little Miss Tohya. The program I had you install will make it search her out by tracking her cell phone signal. Once it finds her, it'll break both her legs, and drag her, screaming, back to us," she started to laugh, growing more and more shrill.

"Kidnapping and hurting her was never part of the plan, Akiko! We could wind up in jail! You agreed with us! You said it made sense, and all we wanted was for her to publicly announce her part in the 'Endgames' server crash!" Adamson was rather frightened by the unnerving glow behind Yamadera's eyes.

"I did say that, didn't I," Yamadera said sweetly. "Damn shame that I lied," she snarled. (I refuse to sit here, waiting, when I've got this nice new toy, all ready to bring that little bitch to me! I want her broken and weeping in front of me! I'm sick of waiting!) She was so caught up in her speech that she failed to realize she had switched back into her native language. Neither Soren, nor Adamson needed a translation. Her body language told them exactly what she was saying.

Yamadera was beginning to breathe heavily and Soren thought he saw foam at the corner of her mouth. He began thinking of a way to incapacitate her and shut the robot down before it could do any harm. The robot interrupted his train of thought for the second time that evening as it suddenly began walking rapidly towards the opposite side of the warehouse.

: TARGET AQUIRED! TARGET DISTANCE: 782 METERS. CLOSING IN FOR RETRIEVAL :

The robot began to run, and hit the back wall of the warehouse at full tilt. Before the rubble had even began to settle, Soren ran to the white van. He was fumbling around in his pocket for the keys when Yamadera hit him in the back of the head with her fist.

"Where the hell do you think you're running off to?" she yelled as he staggered away from her. "You're going to stay right here." She produced a small handgun from under her shirt, and leveled it at Soren's chest. "Perhaps I ought to get in a few warm-up shots on you, before my little pet gets back with the girl, hm?"

"Not a chance, you bitch!" Adamson yelled, grabbing Yamadera from behind. "Go, Soren! See if you can shut that damn thing down!" Soren didn't need to be told twice.

He jumped in the front seat of the van, and tore out of the warehouse, smashing through the large bay doors in the process. He wasn't certain, but he thought he heard a gunshot behind him as he sped into the night, chasing after the robot and a girl whose death would be on his hands if he failed.


	5. Chapter 5

_All characters portrayed herein are the_

_Intellectual and copyrighted property of _

_Fred Gallagher and **Fredart Studios Lic**._

Megatokyo: NewGames.

Chapter 5

Outskirts of Shinjuku 

Oji had told Miho repeatedly that the trick to running long distances was focus. Keep your breathing steady, and try to maintain a constant pace.

'Easy enough in practice,' Miho thought to herself, between labored breaths that made her lungs ache. She found it hard to focus with a seven-foot tall robot chasing her, however. From the moment she heard the crashing sound behind her, Miho knew the robot was hunting her. She didn't know how it had known she was there, because she was more interested in getting away from it than stopping and thinking about why.

Miho was slowing down, and that it would only be a matter of time before the Microsoft robot caught her. She couldn't imagine what it would do when it did catch her. What she needed was a form of transportation more reliable than her own feet. As she rounded a corner, Miho saw a courier removing a parcel from the back of his scooter. The scooter was still running, and she needed it more than he did. Without the slightest hesitation, Miho jumped on the scooter, and with the courier's shouts of protest dwindling behind her, she zoomed off towards Shinjuku.

She drove at a feverish pace for several minutes, until she realized that she no longer heard the robot behind her. She was in a fairly active part of town, though the streets were somewhat unfamiliar to her. She slowed the scooter to a stop, and sat listening for a moment. When she heard nothing but the sounds of normal evening traffic, she breathed a small sigh of relief. Perhaps the robot had lost track of her, entirely. Just when she was feeling confident enough to ditch the scooter and start formulating a plan to rescue Ping, the wall of a building a half-block away exploded outward in a storm of dust and debris.

(DAMN!) she swore loud enough to draw pedestrians' attention away from the slowly collapsing building and the large, red robot emerging from the wreckage.

The robot stood still for a second or two. Then it turned and started walking toward her.

With an agonized buzz, Miho launched the scooter forward and began the chase anew. She knew that she would be able to stay ahead of it, but only for a while. It would catch her, eventually.

She took a hard right-hand turn, and weaved in and out of the line of cars that was moving down the roadway. The robot, being only interested in catching its quarry, merely ran over the tops of the cars or plowed them out of his way.

Miho could hear the screams of terrified people behind her, and tried to get her bearings in order to plot a route away from all the by-standers.

As she approached the next intersection, she tried to read the street sign. She was so focused on the sign that he failed to notice that her traffic light had turned red, and a stream of cars flowed steadily across her path. She didn't even notice the low-slung sports car she plowed into until she sailed through the air above it.

'Well, if the fall doesn't kill me, then I'm certain that the robot will. I wonder how bad it will hurt. I hope Ping will be okay. I probably should have told Piro about all this…' Her thoughts continued along similar lines, until she barreled into a crowd of pedestrians who were patiently waiting for the crosswalk to turn green.

The battered white van gunning down the road was in a terrible state. Aside from being almost as old as its driver, it had just been driven through a warehouse door, and was now being pushed harder than it had ever been pushed before. The driver of the white van, Alfred Soren, was feeling almost as careworn as the vehicle. It had only been that morning he had been used as a punching bag by that Sony robot, and now he was chasing after another robot, trying desperately to save the girl whose life he had helped disrupt.

"Tough it out, old man," he said, between clenched teeth. Soren was angry with himself for not seeing how crazy Yamadera had become. He'd always hated that old cliché about hindsight being 20/20, but in his case, it was true.

As soon as he had sped away from the warehouse, he realized that he wouldn't be able to shut the robot off. He had stupidly left the control box on the workbench. The only thing he could do was follow the robot, and attempt to get Ms. Tohya away from it.

Luckily, the Box-Bot was not capable of subtlety and was leaving plenty of debris behind, making it fairly easy for Soren to follow. He rounded a corner and saw what he thought was a bike courier yelling at a rapidly diminishing figure.

"There you are, you metal bastard," Soren grated. He pressed down harder on the gas, trying to get ahead of the robot. As he got closer, he started looking for Miho. He couldn't see her, which made him feel much better. She had probably stolen the courier's bike.

Suddenly, the robot decided to take a short cut through several office buildings.

"Shit, shit, shit!" He was momentarily at a loss. "Wait a minute," he said after a moments thought, "Yamadera must be using the control box to get the robot ahead of Ms. Tohya!" All he had to do now was guess what the robot's path would be, and he should be able to get to her, first. He started driving toward the robot's supposed direction. His guess was confirmed as the robot broke through one wall, and demolished the doors on another building across the street.

"Jackpot!" he cried, triumphantly.

A few minutes later, he saw the robot break out of another building, but this time it stopped. For about two seconds, its head swiveled around, and then it began running up the street, this time plowing through cars and crowds with ease. Soren followed, looking for any sign on Miho. He lost sight of the robot as he dodged in and out of traffic, and started to follow the debris, again.

The trail of damage rounded a corner, and Soren followed suit. The van started to skid sideways in the process and slammed its side into the side of a delivery lorry. As soon as he had the van settled, he caught sight his quarry, several blocks ahead. He started the van moving again, and caught sight of Miho just in time to see her sail through the air and vanish into a sea of bodies.

Soren hit the accelerator as hard as he could and with a tortured shriek, the van leapt forward. He swerved slightly just aiming the van so it would hit the robot. He struck it on its left side, sending the Bot careening into a line of cars parked on the right-hand side of the street so hard that several of them piled up on top of it.

The van screeched to a halt right beside the pile of unconscious people.

"MS. TOHYA!" Shouted Soren as he jumped out of the van.

Several people had already begun assisting everyone who had been knocked over by Miho's landing. He saw a small leg with dark stockings on sticking out near the bottom of the pile. Soren quickly joined in and, due to his large frame, was able to clear most of the people in a very short period of time. Soren felt a lead weight settle in his stomach. Miho was sprawled on top of several other people, completely unresponsive. He couldn't see her breathing.

He ignored everyone else around him as he lifted her up and carried her over to the van. He laid her gently down on the ground, totally devastated. He was entirely to blame for this whole thing. He could only sit there and look at her. After about 3 seconds, though it seemed an eternity to the gentle man, Miho stirred. She took a deep breath and her eyelids fluttered a couple times.

"Ms. Tohya?" he asked in a pathetically hopeful voice.

Her eyes flew open, and she sat bolt upright. She looked quickly around and her eyes settled on Soren's face. He was amazed at how clear and piercing her amber colored eyes looked.

"What are…you…doing here?" Miho asked, recognizing Soren immediately.

"Are you hurt, at all?" he asked, feeling more relieved than he had ever felt.

"Hardly," she replied with a touch of scorn. "Where is it?" she asked, meaning the robot.

He pointed over his shoulder towards the pile of cars that was just beginning to settle.

"Interesting," was all she said.

A loud shriek of metal bending startled Soren, who spun quickly around. The pile of cars was shifting. Loud bangs could be heard coming from the middle of the pile.

"Shit, shit, shit!" he cursed. "That damn thing is tougher than I thought. Quick get in the van!" He helped Miho stand up, and the quickly ushered her over to the aggrieved van. She came to a stop beside her door, and merely stood there for a second, debating.

She looked searchingly at Soren's face for a second. "OK," she said, with a curt nod.

Without another word, she jumped in the van.

"Why are you here?" Miho asked again, as he sped away.

Soren reached over and grabbed Miho's bag. "Is your cell phone in here?" he asked, ignoring her question and glancing nervously in the rearview mirror.

"Yes, it is." He dropped the bag in her lap.

"Get your phone out and switch it off, before the Bot gets completely free from the wreckage."

She looked at him quizzically. "It's following me through my cell phone signal?"

"Yeah," he replied. "Hurry up!"

"I have a better idea," she said. "Stop the van."

Soren looked at her as if she'd just grown an extra arm. "Are you nuts! That thing is going to be right behind us!"

"Just stop the van, Soren," she said impatiently.

Reluctantly, Soren complied. Before the van had fully stopped, Miho jumped out, and ran quickly over to a storm drain. She listened closely for a second, and then nodded. She grabbed a plastic bag out of a nearby garbage can, and put her phone inside it. After tying the top closed, she dropped her phone into the drain.

"Smart move," Soren said to himself, impressed. That water line would carry the phone miles away from them. He wondered if his other two companions had realized just how clever she really was as she walked back to the van.

"That takes care of the robot, I think," she said, as she climbed back into the van.

"All that did was buy us some time, I'm afraid," Soren said. "It won't take long for the Box-Bot to realize what you did, and start looking for you. The first thing we need to do is hide the van, since Yamadera knows what it looks like and can control the robot. That trick won't fool her for long."

"We?" asked Miho. "You're not playing with Adamson and Yamadera anymore?"

"Not exactly," the big man answered, he quickly explained what had happened over the last few days. He omitted the brief tussle with Yamadera and the gunshot he thought he'd heard as he was leaving the warehouse.

"You see, originally, all Frank and I wanted was for you to admit that you were the one manipulating the players. While we're still to blame for putting 'Excalibur' into the game, we were actually fired because the FTC couldn't trace you. Having you confess to the manipulations would clear our names of that charge, at least."

"You and Adamson? Yamadera didn't agree, did she?"

Soren had a disgusted look on his face. "Not really, but we didn't know that at the time. When we originally approached her, she said she thought it was a good idea. She agreed to come along and help us out. She even helped get backing from some guy at Microsoft. After a while, though, she started getting more and more…unhinged, I guess. She talked that guy into giving us a prototype of the robot, saying that we could load the user control interface from the Sony EDS unit…"

"Ping. Her name is Ping," Miho interrupted him.

Soren looked over at Miho in surprise. "Ping, then," he said, somewhat surprised. Anyway, once we loaded the UCI from the…Ping into the Box-Bot, we were going send it back to him, and be done with damned thing."

"You will be able to repair Ping, right?" Miho asked in a slightly menacing tone.

Soren looked somewhat offended. "Of course I will. I was the only one who even touched it, I mean her," he quickly amended after seeing the venomous look Miho shot him. "She's not damaged, at all."

"How did you manage to subdue her without harming her? The minute you attempted to snatch her, she should have thrown you through a wall."

Soren rubbed the back of his head. "Her aim was off. She threw me into the side of a dumpster, instead. The second time I tried to grab her, I wound up through the window of a third floor apartment across the street. The long scratches on my arm are from the cat I landed on."

"I can't say I feel sorry for you," Miho said.

Soren screwed his face into a grimace. "I guess I can understand that," he said, ruefully. "Anyway, the third time I grabbed her, I managed to disconnect her ear-blades. Frank found out that all EDS units have an emergency shut-off installed. The ear-blades disconnect if you tug them hard enough, and then the system shuts down. Getting her to hold on to me long enough for me to grab them was the tough part. I didn't think I could be bent like that and still walk afterwards."

The unlikely pair drove for several minutes in silence.

"Turn left, here," Miho said as they approached a busy intersection.

"Where are we going?" Soren asked.

"There is a parking garage that we can use to hide this wreck. After that, we're going to go somewhere safe, so I can make a few phone calls. Take the next right," she said, and sat back in her seat.

Soren wasn't feeling nearly as confident as his passenger in the definition of the word "safe" as he pulled into the garage.

Cave of Evil 

"What kind of nightclub has escape tunnels built into the stockroom?" Soren asked, attempting to squeeze his bulky frame through the narrow aperture in the back wall.

"A night club that used to be as an air raid shelter. The walls surrounding it are twenty-five centimeters thick. This tunnel was actually an airway when it was first built." Miho replied.

Miho and Soren had dropped the van in a multi-story parking garage several blocks away from the 'Cave'. Miho had picked the site, since it was close to the sewer line that the tunnel ended at. The crawl through the tight passageway was an experience that Soren was trying to not think about.

"So, what now?" Soren asked. He had realized that he was out of his depth here. He was just a computer jockey. He was not used to all this crawling and running. A robot certainly had never chased him, before.

"I need to contact some friends of mine. Let's go up to Kenji's office." With that, Miho began winding her way through the boxes towards the door.

They walked out into the main area of the club. It was still early enough in the evening, that there weren't a lot of people there.

Halfway across the dance floor, however, Miho spotted someone familiar.

"Actually," she said to Soren, "it looks like I don't have to make any phone calls, after all."

Daidaiya's Chanto Dining 

With a final, impressive leap off the back of another patron's chair, Junpei landed right next to Piro and Largo's table.

(What the hell?) Erika exclaimed, catching Kimiko before she fell backwards out of her chair in surprise.

Junpei turned and looked at Erika and the rest, surprised.

"Junpei, dude!" Largo said. "Sw33t entrance!"

(What the hell are you doing here?) Erika asked.

(Junpei sorry, Miss. Not mean interrupt Hayasaka-dono dinner. Junpei asked come deliver message. Please forgive, Miss.) Junpei bowed slightly, and turned around. He leaned over and began speaking quietly to a very unnoticeable man who had been sitting next to their table the whole time, directly behind Largo. He was annoyed that he had not even registered the man's presence.

"Hey, Piro, what did he say?" Largo asked.

"He just said that he was here to deliver a message," Piro replied.

"A message? He's probably just on some Ninj4…"

"Wait a minute, Largo," Piro said, motioning everyone to be quiet. He wasn't sure but he thought he heard Junpei say something about "The EDS Unit." He listened closely for a few seconds. His eyes widened, and he stood up and grabbed the large Ninja's arm.

"Junpei! What was that about Ping and Tohya?" he asked, somewhat frightened.

"Friend of L33t Master should not grab Ninja from behind," Junpei said chidingly. "It rude to interrupt, also."

"No, no, my good Ninja," the non-descript man said, soothingly, "It's quite all right. You must be Piro," he said, turning to look at the short American.

"How do you know my name?" Piro asked, confused.

"I'm a good friend of Miho Tohya. My name is Messenger. She's told me about you and Largo. I'm sorry about your Sony EDS unit, though," he said with a touch of sympathy.

"What happened to Ping?" Piro asked.

"Tohya-san hasn't told you, then?" Messenger asked, surprised.

"Told me what!" Piro asked, panicking a little bit.

"The EDS unit was kidnapped this morning, by a group of 'Endgames' developers who want revenge on Miho," Messenger said.

Erika noticed that Piro turned decidedly pale when hearing Messenger's words. She stood, walked over, and with a slight shove sat him down. She motioned to the waiter to bring Piro a beer. Satisfied that he would stay where he was for the moment, she turned her attention back to Messenger.

"Why don't you start from the beginning, and tell us what's going on," Erika suggested.

Messenger began to tell the quartet all about Miho's day. He left out the details of his involvement and his message to Yamadera. While he talked Erika was murmuring a translation for Kimiko, who didn't know English.

Piro could only sit for several seconds in stunned silence. Ping was missing, and in the hands of some pissed off game developers. There was no telling what they would do to her. "Man, Tsubasa's gonna kill me," he said, burying his face in his hands.

Kimiko suddenly leaned forward. (Why would Tohya-san send a Ninja for you? Will you be able to help her?) she asked, with a curious look on her face.

(Actually, Nanasawa-san, she sent Junpei-san for my bodyguard, Oji.) He replied. (I am limited in what I am able to do. However, if Oji is willing to help, I know he would assist her, greatly,) With that, Messenger stood up, and turned to Junpei. (Shall we go ask Oji?) he asked.

(No need to, boss,) said a tall, thin man who had appeared out of seemingly thin air right next to Messenger. Junpei took a half step back, shocked at the man's sudden appearance. (Of course I'll help. How 'bout you, Ninja?) he asked Junpei. Messenger thought he heard an odd catch in his voice as he spoke to Junpei.

(Have to check with Head Ninja, first. Head Ninja approve, Junpei help,) he said. Oji looked familiar to Junpei, and he wanted to find out why.

(Well, let's go, already,) Oji said, and began walking towards the door.(Junpei apologize, again, Miss,) he said to Erika, then turned and began to follow Oji.

(Wait!) cried Kimiko. Junpei and Oji both turned around. She turned and knelt down in front of Piro. (Piro, you've got to go with them! They need your help!)

(What? Help them? I couldn't help them,) Piro said.

(Ping is your friend, right?) she asked.

(I suppose she is,) he said hesitantly.

(If your friends are in trouble, then you've got to help them, Piro,) she grabbed his hands and looked pleadingly in his eyes.

Piro sat looking into her eyes for several seconds. He wanted to help. He truly wished that he could help, but he was afraid that he would just get in their way.

(But, what could I do to?) he asked, lamely. (It's not like I'm a Ninja or anything.)

(Does it matter?) Erika asked, quietly.

(Pardon?) he asked, with a confused look on his face.

(It doesn't really matter what you can or can't do. All that matters…is that you're willing to try.) She had a rather sad expression on her face. Piro realized that she was talking more about Hitoshi, her ex-fiancée, than about him. He looked down at Kimiko, and then turned back to Erika.

(You're right,) he said, standing up with a determined look on his face. "Largo, come on. We're going to help Ping and Tohya out."

Largo looked at his friend with disgust written plainly on his face.

"These chix0rs have finally taken you over, dude. You wanna go straight down into the Zombies' HQ? Are you out of your fscking mind?" Largo asked, his voice a low, menacing growl.

Erika opened her mouth to speak, but Piro started talking before she could say anything.

"Yes, Largo. That's exactly what we're going to go and do. We're going to help a friend," he said, with a look at Erika, who almost smiled.

"Not a chance, dude. There's no way I'm gonna go there. You go and get your brains eaten. I'll stay here, and drink a toast to your d34th."

Piro grinned slightly, leaned over and whispered in Largo's ear for a second. Erika, who was standing fairly close to the two of them thought she overheard the words "Rubber chicken" and "Vapor Rub."

Largo jumped away from Piro, with a horrified expression on his face. "You wouldn't!"

"Yes, Largo. I would. I need your help." Piro had a very set look. Kimiko was rather impressed. She didn't know what he was actually saying, but his body language was very resolved and determined. He was showing a side of himself she had not even suspected was there.

(Erika and I are coming, too,) Kimiko announced, suddenly. She wanted to see more of this different Piro.

(Why are you volunteering me?) Erika asked.

Largo said, "Fine, dammit. You're gonna get both of us killed, you know. This is a trap. I can f33l it."

"Quit whining, Largo, the girls are coming, too" Piro said, smiling at Kimiko. "It's not like we're going into combat, you know!"

(If you're done talking, don't you think we should get moving?) Oji asked impatiently.

Sonoda Residence 

Masamichi Sonoda enjoyed working for the Tokyo Police: Cataclysm Division (TPCD), since it allowed him to have most evenings free to spend time with his family. The few nighttime disasters that occurred were almost always scheduled. He hadn't had a nighttime emergency call in quite a long time. So it was with great surprise that he heard his communicator going off during his favorite TV show. He picked it up, and hit the answer button, (Sonoda, here.)

(Inspector, we've got a problem,) came the tinny sound of the dispatcher's voice.

(Don't tell me…a redheaded American is tearing the hell out of Shinjuku, right?) He lived closer to Shinjuku than any of the other TPCD officers, and was always the first one they called for that area.

(No, sir. It's actually a 2-meter red mecha doing it,) the dispatcher sounded somewhat amazed that so small of a mecha would require TPCD intervention.

(Are you sure it's only 2 meters?)

(Too many reports all say the same thing for us to ignore it.)

(Roger. Inspector Sonoda, en route to scene,) he clicked off the communicator.

(Meimi, I have to go and save Shinjuku,) he said as he donned his uniform.

(Take care, dear,) his wife called as he ran out the door. (Keep us safe.) She smiled, and then changed the channel on the TV to a love story.


	6. Chapter 6

_All characters portrayed herein are the  
Intellectual and copyrighted property of__  
Fred Gallagher and **Fredart Studios Lic**._

Megatokyo: NewGames.

Chapter 6  
_  
Kanasago Industrial Park_

Yamadera's fists beat a furious tattoo on the walls of the office as she vented her rage.

Once the robot had caught sight of Tohya flying into the crowd of pedestrians, Yamadera had switched the robot back to auto mode so that she could devote her full attention to watching the robot break Tohya's legs. She stood in front of the video feed monitor, bouncing with anticipation, when the robot apparently went out of control and slammed into several parked cars.

She immediately checked the diagnostics readout and saw that, other than some damage to the armor plating, the robot was functioning normally. By the time she had returned to the monitor, the robot had extricated itself from the wreckage and she saw as the white van sped off around a corner. She vowed to deal with Soren's interference, later. Tohya was her main concern.

She watched the feed as the robot rounded the corner, and saw no trace of the white van. The robot started running down streets, seemingly at random, until Yamadera realized she had made a critical error. She realized she had mentioned that the robot was tracking Tohya through her cell phone. They must have dropped in a dump truck, or down a drain. Yamadera had lost her prey, for the moment.

After a few minutes of screaming and pounding on the walls, she reigned in her anger. She needed to be clear-headed and capable of rational thought.

(Now, where would Tohya go, if she felt threatened? Her apartment? No. She knows that would be an obvious choice.) Yamadera started pacing as she considered Tohya's options. On her third lap around the office, her eyes fell on Ping. She ceased pacing, and walked towards the workbench, glancing at Adamson's recumbent form on the floor. Shooting Adamson had not been nearly as satisfying as she had hoped it would be.

Once she got to the bench, she guided the Box-Bot down an alleyway and left it in standby mode. She then disconnected the video monitor from the UCI and hooked it into the Sony robot. It only took her a few minutes to find the video record archives. She searched through several files, until she found one named (Sleepover at Miho's! Yay!) Yamadera loaded that file into the review program and sat back to watch.

Watching the video rather disturbed Yamadera, since Tohya was treating the robot just like it was a real girl. The two of them were playing a video game and chatting like two normal schoolgirls. The robot kept yammering on about some guy named 'Piro-niisan'. It almost acted like it had a crush on him.

It took Yamadera quite a long time to review the archive, since there was no fast-forward control. After almost an hour of video, Tohya started talking about a place called the (Cave of Evil.)

(Cave of Evil? What's that?) the robot asked, curiously.

(It's a nightclub in Shinjuku where I spend a lot of my free time,) said Tohya.

(Oh! I didn't know you liked to dance!) the robot exclaimed.

(I don't go there for dancing, Ping,) Tohya responded. (I go there to lose myself. When the club is really busy, I can sit in a corner, or at the bar, and forget all about the consciousness that people refer to as 'Miho' and become a part of the music. I feel the pulse of life on the dance floor and it becomes me. There, at those times, I feel safe. The 'Cave'… well, it's my own little sanctuary from the world. Everyone needs one of those, don't you think?) she asked.

(I suppose so,) the robot responded. (I wonder if Piro-niisan…)

Yamadera shut the playback off with a wolfish grin. 'So, Tohya has a sanctuary, does she?' she thought to herself. (We'll see how safe it is, won't we?) she said and turned back to the control box lying on the table.

Luckily, the address for the club was a surprisingly short distance from the warehouse. The transmitter didn't have unlimited range, after all.

_Cave of Evil_

When Kenji walked into his office in the 'Cave of Evil', he noticed that something was very wrong. It took him a few seconds to figure out that it wasn't the really big American sitting at the desk, feverishly surfing the Internet, nor was the disheveled appearance of Miho's clothes that was setting off his internal alarms. It was the way Miho was sitting on the couch. She had a pose that was a little _too_ relaxed. She was normally a very alert girl, even when she was utterly at peace. Her attention would snap to anything that moved near her, whether or not she felt threatened. The way she was sitting now, however, made Kenji think that she was doing her level best to remain calm.

(What's wrong, Tohya,) Kenji asked without preamble.

Rather than answering his question, Miho stood up and walked over to the window that looked down on the dance floor. She only had to watch the crowd for a few moments before she saw Oji walk in the front door, and to her surprise, followed by the Ninja, Junpei. She started to turn away from the window and go meet the duo, when another movement at the door caught her eye.

(What the hell?) she asked, rhetorically, as she watched Largo, Piro, Erika and Kimiko come in right after Junpei.

"This place smells of corruption and evil," Largo said dramatically.

"I think it's the unwashed bodies, actually," Erika said, making a moue of distaste.

Largo was not enjoying himself one bit. Not only had he not had nearly enough to drink, but also Piro was dragging him into the very lion's den. Watching the crowd surging and undulating to the sinister rhythms emanating from the large wall of speakers filled Largo with a terrible sense of dread. 'Either a crossbow or a tank would be useful here,' he thought to himself.

He was watching the crowds very carefully when Miho walked up to them. After the barest of nods at Junpei and the other guy, she stormed up to Piro.

She immediately started speaking in the undead tongue, using a rather annoyed tone. Piro looked uncomfortable as she was talking. She must have finally been able to get into his mind. Here in her lair, where her power was at its peak, she might even be able to get all of them. He decided to intervene to give everyone else a chance to escape.

"Speak to me if you must speak at all, revenant," he said threateningly. He started making shooing motions towards the door. With a little luck, it would take her longer to get through his mental defenses than it would anyone else.

"Dammit, Largo, shut up," Piro said.

"I was merely asking what the four of you were doing here." Miho stated. "I don't remember asking for any of you to come here," she finished.

"That's funny," Largo said, "I would've thought that you'd be happy to have us down here, in the heart of…" the rest of what he was trying to say was unintelligible though Piro's hand, which had suddenly appeared over Largo's mouth.

"Tohya-san, where is Ping?" Piro asked, gamely trying to hold onto Largo's face. "When Junpei was talking to that other guy, I heard him mentioning Ping. Your friend Messenger said that she had been kidnapped. We came to see if we could help." he said defiantly.

"Let's go up to Kenji's office," she said in exasperation.

_Shinjuku_

Masamichi Sonoda lumbered through the streets of Shinjuku looking for this small mecha that was terrorizing the populace. He was in one of the smaller TPCD mechs since bringing out the "Big Gun," as he called his Urban Defense Mk 4 unit, would have been overkill. Overkill was not allowed by departmental policy.

(To protect and to serve, in moderation,) he laughed. (That ought to be on our badges.)

It hadn't taken him long to find the rubble from the mech's little rampage, but it was so localized that it only taken a short period of time to get it all repaired. He wasn't worried so much about damage to the district as allowing a precedent to be set. _All_ disasters needed proper permission and scheduling.

For almost two hours after arriving in Shinjuku, he heard no more reports or sightings, and was beginning to think it might have run off to another district. He started to wander back towards his home, when his radio started chattering with numerous sightings of the mech just three blocks from his present position.

He sped up, and barreled around a couple of corners before catching sight of the mech approaching a building. As he got closer, he noticed it was the nightclub where one of Yuki's schoolmates hung out.

(What kind of club is called the 'Cave of Evil', anyway?) he thought to himself as he ground to a halt in front the mech, stopping its menacing advance. He was rather unimpressed with its appearance. It looked like a large version an armor suit from an Xbox game. Masamichi's own mech stood a solid meter taller than other mech.

He keyed the mike on his loudspeaker, and said, (Cease and desist your rampage, immediately. You may request permission for a…Yow!)

Masamichi's startled yelp interrupted the rest of his official warning, as the smaller mech picked up Mk 2 and held it above its head.

_Cave of Evil_

Miho was thinking very rapidly as she walked up the stairs to Kenji's office. Having Largo here was bad enough, but Piro and the two girls caused more difficulty. As much as she enjoyed playing with Largo, she would have preferred for all of them to be kept completely out of this little tangle. She didn't want to see any of them get hurt. Halfway up the stairs, Piro tapped Miho on the shoulder.

(Is Ping alright?) he asked, worriedly. (Do the kidnappers still have her?)

(Yes, they do,) she replied. (Ping is not damaged, though she is inoperative.)

(That's good,) Piro answered with relief as they walked into the sparse office.

Soren stood up as they walked in, and walked up to Miho. "I've got bad news, I'm afraid," he said, glumly. "I can't find ANY sort of schematic for the Box-Bot online. We're going to need the User Control Box in order to shut it down."

"Another friend?" Erika asked.

"Sort of," Miho replied. "He's one of Ping's kidnappers"

"Say what?" Piro asked, shocked.

"He's on our side, now. Things haven't gone according to their plan, and now he's helping us."

"Ok, ok, start from the beginning, and tell us what's going on, please," Piro said.

"You're not going to like it," Miho warned.

She sat down on the couch, and told them everything she knew about the situation. When she got to the part about the Box-Bot, Largo got very excited.

"A giant robot! W00t! I gotta get one of those!" he exclaimed, which made Piro even more nervous than he had been.

(Is it going to come here?) asked Kimiko, who had been getting a translation from Erika the whole time.

"It's possible, but if it hasn't gotten here by now, I think we are safe," Miho said.

(Oh, that's good,) Kimiko said, relieved.

"Where is control box?" Junpei asked.

"It's at the warehouse, with Yamadera," Soren answered.

"So, let's go and get it," Oji said.

"Easier said than done," Soren responded, "Yamadera has a gun. She threatened to shoot me, and I think she did shoot Frank."

"Have you called the police, or an ambulance?" Erika asked.

"No, I haven't," Soren replied, shooting Miho a hard look.

"Why not?" Erika asked.

"I don't want police involved," Miho said. "I'm not Ping's rightful owner, and neither is Piro. If the police showed up there, they would collect Ping as evidence, and she would get sent back to Sony, since Piro's friend took a little trip overseas. If he's dead, there isn't a lot we can do about it, right now."

(That's heartless!) Kimiko exclaimed, after Erika translated Miho's words.

(So was their kidnapping,) Miho replied.

"Never mind all that," Oji interrupted. "What's your plan, then?" he asked Miho.

"Simple," she said. "First we've got to get the control box away from Yamadera. Soren and I will go with Oji to get the box. Junpei, can you scout ahead of us, and make sure we're not going to walk right into the Box-Bot's arms?"

Junpei's reply was drowned out by the thunderous crash of something hurtling through the ceiling of the dance floor and crashing into the back wall of the nightclub. Everyone's screams were overpowered by the combined screams of over a hundred club patrons.

(Damn, she found us,) Miho said, frustrated. "We're out of time, folks," Miho shouted to everyone in the room. She looked down at the dance floor. It was in utter chaos.

Miho saw the silhouette of the Box-Bot through the dust settling around the newly opened wall.

(_COME OUT, LITTLE GIRL)_ Yamadera's voice echoed through the cavernous room, amplified by the 'Talk Smack' loudspeaker equipped on the Bot. (_COME OUT, AND I WON'T HAVE TO HURT ANY OF THESE NICE PEOPLE.)_

It was taking a while for the club patrons to run out of the building, though some had started climbing over the rubble and out of the new skylight in order to escape.

"The crowd should buy us at least two minutes," Soren said fretfully. "Can we get to the escape tunnel?" he asked.

"Not unless we pull the other mech out of it, first," she said, looking at the exposed storeroom with a TPCD mech sprawled in it. "We're going to have to run past it in the thick of the crowd. Hopefully, it won't notice us. Once we escape…"

"What?" Largo interrupted with a disgusted look on his face.

"What do you mean, 'What'?" Miho replied in exasperation.

"This robot is chasing you, right?" he asked.

"Yes, it is," Miho answered. "It's been chasing me all night."

"Then what are you going to do about it?" he asked harshly. "Just keep running away, like a scared little girl? Or are you going to put up a fight, and show this hunk of steel who _really_ ownz0rs it?"

"You expect me to fight it?" Miho asked appalled.

Largo looked down at her in disgust. "Apparently not," he spat, and turned his back to her. He looked at the crowd pushing and shoving to get out of the building for a few seconds. "Go ahead and run, undead. I will take care of this. You are obviously too w34k and grrli3 to face your enemies head on. Go play in the sh4d0ws, while r34l w4rri0rs teach this robot the meaning of c0mb4t." He started walking towards the doorway, with a very determined set to his shoulders.

The 'weak' insult irritated Miho, but the 'girlie' comment galvanized her.

"Get out of my way," she snarled, shoving her way past him. "I'll distract it long enough for the rest of you to get away. I'll need your help, Ninja"

She stopped and looked at Soren. "The warehouse is just a couple of kilometers to the east. Go and get the control box, and take Oji with you. Once you have it, shut that thing down," she said, moving swiftly out of the office, Junpei at her heels.

Piro and Kimiko quickly descended the stairs and ran down the short hallway that led out to the dance floor. Miho had apparently taken another route, as there was quite a bit of rubble piled in front of the door. Working as quickly as possible, the two of them managed to clear the rubble enough to open the door. Looking out on the ruined dance floor, Piro was surprised that no one seemed to be seriously injured.

(Come on, Piro,) said Kimiko, urgently. (Let's get out of here!)

With that, she grabbed Piro's hand and the two friends joined the panicked mob.

When Largo walked out onto the dance floor, he saw Miho waiting in a dark alcove. Looking up, he thought he saw Junpei in the rafters.

'I see. She wants to be a decoy while Junpei attacks the robot,' he thought. He turned and took a good look at the large robot standing at the exit of the club. 'They will need help,' he decided. A quick glance showed that there was little that could be used as an effective weapon against this machine. He needed something that would allow Largo to meet it as an equal. He needed a robot of his own. Glancing at Miho one last time, Largo started walking purposefully towards the now ruined back storeroom.

Miho stood in her alcove, watching the people escape from the club. She realized that her original thought of leaving with the mob was actually a bad one. The robot was intently scanning the crowd, watching for Miho to try and escape with them.

Yamadera would be thrilled to see that she wasn't.

'Just another minute and they'll all be out. I hope Junpei knows what to do,' she thought.

Erika was already in the stockroom when Largo entered. She was trying to undo the buckles holding the unconscious Sonoda in place.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, harshly. "You should have left, already."

"Help me, Largo," she said, as if his presence didn't surprise her. "I can't get this buckle undone."

"You should have left, already," he repeated, kneeling down next to Erika and pressing the switch that released the buckle. "He doesn't appear to be greatly injured, but it's too late for you to move him out of here," Largo said, hearing Miho shouting something at the robot. Everyone must have gotten out, safely. He carried Sonoda over to a corner of the room with enough space for him to lay flat.

Largo looked at Erika for a mere second, and then quickly ran back over to the Mk 2. As he was climbing into the pilots' seat, he saw that there was another room behind the mech. This other room had taken no damage from the Mk. 2 being forcefully hurled into the adjoining room.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Erika asked, as Largo strapped himself in.

"There is another room behind this thing with reinforced walls," Largo said, ignoring her question. "Once I get it moving, move him into the room. You should be safe there." He started looking around for a power button. The entire control panel was labeled in that weird spidery script he saw all over this city. He started pushing button at random, until a voice emanated from the machine. He couldn't understand what it saying, but he recognized the language.

"The Zombie Queen must have taken over this machine, already. It is useless to me," he said, frustrated.

"Actually, it said that you've engaged the 'Tutorial Mode.' If you want it to speak in English, just say, 'Speak English, please." Erika said, with an almost amused tone of voice. Though she didn't think Largo getting into the TCPD mech was a very good idea, she was oddly glad that he was willing to help.

Largo looked over at Erika, and with an irritated twist of lips, said, "Speak English, please."

"Welcome," the robot said, in English. Largo smiled, wolfishly.

"Now, we're getting somewhere."


	7. Chapter 7

_All characters portrayed herein are the_

_Intellectual and copyrighted property of_

_Fred Gallagher and **Fredart Studios Lic**._

Megatokyo: NewGames.

Chapter 7

_Cave of Evil_

The crowd of frightened clubbers had mostly dispersed into the night, and as Miho looked around the now almost deserted dance floor, she was surprised that no one had been seriously hurt or killed when the TPCD mech was forcibly hurled through the ceiling and across the dance floor. Everything would go smoother without anything distracting her or Junpei. Thinking of the Ninja, she looked up into the rafters to see if Junpei had managed to get himself into position. He must have seen her looking, and moved his hand rapidly across the beam of one of the club's overhead lights.

(It's almost time to begin the next round,) she said softly to herself, watching as the last straggler exited the club. She took a firmer grip on the high-voltage stun gun that Waltah, the bartender, normally kept behind the counter.

After a couple of deep breaths, she stepped out of her alcove and walked calmly to the edge of the dance floor that was the furthest from the jagged opening in the ceiling. Miho looked up at the robot standing on the sidewalk.

(Yamadera,) she said in a normal voice, (you've been looking for me, I hear.)

Boldly standing within plain sight of the robot made Miho's skin tingle. She imagined that she could feel the implicit violence, as if the metal shell of the thing were infused with its operator's hatred and madness.

(_AH! THERE YOU ARE! I'VE BEEN LOOKING ALL OVER FOR YOU!_) Yamadera's voice, was tinny and distorted through the Talk-Smack speaker. It, held a shaky undertone, as if she didn't have a lot of control over herself just then. (_IT'S VERY RUDE TO MAKE SOMEONE WORK SO HARD TO JUST HAVE A LITTLE CHAT, YOU KNOW._ ) The Box-Bot slid a little on the rubble as it came down into the club, through the newly formed hole in the ceiling. It stopped on the edge of the dance floor, opposite Miho.

(I'm afraid that I really never gave a thought to how inconvenienced you might be,) Miho said calmly. She didn't want Yamadera to see how nervous she was. She kept her hands behind her back, not only to conceal the stun gun, but also to keep Yamadera from seeing her hands shaking. (Have you damaged Ping?) she asked, maintaining her cool demeanor.

(_THE SONY TOY? SHE WON'T BE WAKING UP ANYTIME SOON, I CAN TELL YOU!) _Yamadera replied with a cackling laugh.

(You are going to pay for hurting her,) Miho said quietly.

(_YOU MUST HAVE BEEN SPEAKING TOO SOFTLY FOR ME TO HEAR PROPERLY, BECAUSE IT SOUNDED LIKE YOU SAID I WAS GOING TO PAY! ME? I'VE SUFFERED MORE AT YOUR HANDS THAN THAT USELESS PIECE OF SONY TRASH DID AT MINE!) _ Yamadera shrieked, her voice cracking on the last word. (_I'M GOING TO ENJOY BREAKING YOU!) _The robot began lumbering forward, towards Miho.

(Come get me, you bitch!) Miho yelled, and started running towards the robot.

Junpei took his cue to move.

Using a bundle of lighting wires as a line, he swung down from the rafters behind the Box-Bot, holding a broken off parking meter that had been carried into the club with the TPCD robot. The parking meter still had a sizeable chunk of concrete attached to the base, and it was this that came in to contact with the back of the robot's head. The robot stumbled forward another couple of steps, as though stunned. Miho's gamble had paid off. Her plan had been dependant on the robots balance gyros being housed in the cranial compartment. The contact with the robot sent Junpei spinning away, and he disappeared in the darkness of the ceiling.

Miho ran straight up to the robot and hit it with both contacts from her stun gun. While 50,000 volts isn't enough to kill a human, it can often play havoc with a piece of machinery, especially when that machinery is a sophisticated robot.

The designers of the Box-Bot, however, had anticipated possibly high-voltage attacks, and as Miho found out, gave the Box-Bot superior electrical shielding. It gave no indication that the charge even affected it.

The robot still staggered a bit, though it only took a second for the gyros to recalibrate and the robot stood upright, once more. Its hand shot out at an inhuman speed, and only the fact that Miho had already began to move prevented it from grabbing her. She lunged forward, and shot between the robot's legs, her slim frame allowing her to dive between the metal pillars with ease. She rolled to her feet behind the robot, and ran up the pile of rubble into the street, where she would have more room to run, if needed.

The robot came lumbering out of the building a mere second later, and sighted Miho immediately. It started to move towards Miho, and then suddenly stopped.

Miho began to feel a bit hopeful that the stun gun had worked, just a bit slower than she had thought it would.

Her hopes were dashed, when the robot suddenly spoke, it harsh metallic voice sending a bass rumble through her bones.

: OPERATOR COMMAND. AUTO MODE ENGAGED. MISSION: DAMAGE AND COLLECT TARGET. LETHAL FORCE INHIBITORS DEACTIVATED. SELF DEFENSE PROTOCOLS INITIATED. NEUTRALIZE OUTSIDE THREATS. :

Yamadera had stopped operating the robot, herself. Had Oji and Soren arrived and distracted her, or did Yamadera merely want to watch the show?

She stopped her thoughts, as the robot began moving directly towards her.

: TARGET LOCATED. COMMENCE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE. :

Just as she was preparing to run, Junpei came flying out of the gaping hole, still clutching the broken off parking meter.

The robot, however, was not to be hit the same way twice, and with no human operator slowing its response time, it reacted far quicker than it had last time. The Box-Bot spun-around with a speed that belied its size, and grabbed the concrete block on the end of the pole, just as Junpei started to swing it down onto the robot's head, again. Before the agile Ninja had a chance to react, the robot spun around, still holding the pole, with Junpei on the other end. Just before it had turned completely around, it released the pole, with an upward toss.

The pole and subsequently, Junpei, were hurled with bone-shattering force through the wall of the building across the street, two stories up. Before the dust had even started to billow out of the new hole, the robot turned and faced Miho, who was paralyzed with uncertainty. Junpei had been the largest part of her plan to stop this thing, and it had very casually removed the Ninja from the scene.

She started to circle away from the robot, so that she was now standing in the deserted street, with the ruined entrance to the 'Cave' on her right. She looked to the left, and up towards the debris-filled hole that Junpei had been hurled into. Her only option was flight, though she had no idea how she was going to get away from the robot.

She tensed up, preparing to run, as the robot took a step towards her. Before it could take more than that single step, Miho heard a strange noise coming from inside the 'Cave,' with a different noise underscoring the rhythmic clangs.

Largo. Screaming like a madman.

"Y34H, B4BY!" he shouted joyously as he barreled full-tilt out of the building, riding in the TPCD mech that had been thrown through the building only a few minutes ago. Miho thought she could hear a feminine voice calmly explaining how to move the arms in tandem with the legs for balance.

Though she was glad for the distraction, she wished that Largo had waited until he'd heard that portion of the tutorial, since his momentum had died slightly, and he was now overbalanced forward. The mech lurched drunkenly and stumbled towards the Box-Bot in a most ineffective manner.

The Box-Bot grabbed the arm of the battered mech, and executed a textbook hip toss, which sent Largo flying down the street. The TPCD mech hit the ground with horrific force, and rolled to a stop in a shower of sparks and dust. Miho could see that the arm the Box-Bot had grabbed was only barely attached, and was bent at an odd angle across the mech's back.

The Box-Bot turned its attention back to Miho.

_Kanasago Industrial Park_

Oji and Soren pulled into a parking space a few buildings down from the warehouse where Yamadera was holed up with the control box. The two men got out of the sedan that Oji had casually stolen after they had escaped from the club.

"What's the plan?" Soren asked tightly.

"What's the set-up inside?"

"When you're facing the building, there is a normal doorway, but we'll probably just want to walk in through the bay doors."

"That would be a neat trick," Oji said.

"They aren't really there, anymore. I drove the van through them about couple of hours ago."

"Is it safe to assume that the place has a backdoor?"

"Yeah," Soren said, "it does, though it's usually locked."

"I'm thinking that a good distraction plan is in order here," he replied.

"A distraction? What do you mean?" Soren asked feeling certain he already knew the answer.

"Simple," Oji said, calmly. "You walk into the warehouse, and when Yamadera is looking at you, I hit her from behind."

"Wait a minute," Soren said, "that means that I'm the one she's pointing the gun at, right?"

Oji's impatience showed in his stance. He hated all this talking. He wanted to finally get the chance to do some damage. Working as Messenger's bodyguard had its own perks, but he hadn't had a good workout in about a year. No one ever tried anything stupid with Messenger, anymore. Not since that fight, a year ago.

"It's not like I'll give her the chance to hit you, or anything, Soren," Oji replied.

"No way, man. I've got a better idea," Soren said, "Why don't you walk in the front, and then I'll the backdoor down a moment later. When she turns to look at me, you get her."

"That could work, I suppose, if you can kick the door down," Oji conceded grudgingly.

Soren stood, allowing Oji to get a good look at his size. The scrawny man merely quirked an eyebrow. After a brief pause, he nodded.

"Let's do it, then," Soren said, and the two men started off towards the warehouse.

_Shinjuku_

The robot started moving towards Miho, again. She spun and started running as hard as she could, her legs pumping furiously. The robot stood for a mere second.

: PURSUIT PROGRAM INITIATED. :

Miho heard the robot take several running steps after her, and then it seemed to stop.

: ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. INVALID COMMAND STRING. INITIATE STANDBY MODE. :

Miho stopped and turned, facing the robot. It stood stock still in the middle of the road, its power plant winding down in a diminishing hum. The humming stopped.

She walked cautiously towards the robot, ready to begin her flight once more.

As she got closer, the robot gave no indication that it had any awareness of its surrounding. Miho heard more clanging coming from behind her, as well as the telltale whine of police sirens. She turned and saw several TPCD mechs and a small squad of regular police cruisers approaching. Not wanting to get involved with the authorities, she quickly ran past the immobile form of the robot towards the building where Junpei had been hurled. She wanted to know how badly hurt he had been. She actually liked the big Ninja, in the way a normal girl would like stuffed animal.

Just as she approached the doorway to the building, she heard a rush of air, and light thump behind her. She quickly turned, and saw the Ninja standing behind her.

(Junpei!) Miho cried, reaching up and hugging him. (Are you hurt?) she asked concernedly.

(Junpei not hurt badly, miss. Small bruise. Cut on forehead. Much blood, little damage,) she stepped back and took a closer look at him. The right side of the Ninja's face had streaks of blood running down his cheeks and onto his mask. The sleeve had been ripped off his left arm, and Miho could see a spreading bruise on his shoulder, that ran under his shirt.

(Going to feel arm in morning,) Junpei said, wryly. (Miss not worry. Junpei fine.) He looked around for a second, until he saw the TPCD mech laying facedown in the street, half a block away. (L33T MASTER!) Junpei yelled, and leapt the entire distance to the mech Largo had been operating. Junpei was relieved to hear Largo swearing vociferously.

"Miserable fscking piece of sht! Get up! You can't take more than a couple little throws?" he said, trying to get the unresponsive mech to stand.

"L33t Master!" Junpei said, landing lightly beside the wreck.

"Junpei, dude! Help me get this bucket turned over," Largo said, relieved.

"Ninja Strength Flip!" Junpei said, and with both arms beneath one side of the mech, flipped it into the air, where it turned and crashed down on its back.

"Yoww…OW!" came Largo's cry of shock, then pain. He unbuckled himself from the pilot's seat, and stood up beside the Ninja.

"Junpei sorry, L33t Master. Not mean cause pain," the big Ninja apologized. "Mech is damaged. Think it broke."

"This thing deserved d34th. It was not l33t," he said, dismissing the mech as he would the dust he was brushing off of his shirt. He looked down the street. "It is disabled, then," he said, looking at the robot that was now surrounded by the TPCD and regular patrols. His face brightened, "I wonder if I can talk them into letting me have it?"

"Junpei not think so, L33t Master. Robot cause much trouble. Not good for police," Junpei said as tactfully as he could.

Before Largo could respond, Erika came up out of the ruined 'Cave' supporting Inspector Sonoda. While Sonoda had regained consciousness, he was still rather unsteady. Several officers spotted her as well, and swarmed over, collecting Sonoda, and asking Erika questions. She shook her head, and Sonoda gave a curt order. The officers dispersed, assisting Sonoda to a medical unit.

Largo walked up to Erika, visually checking for damage. "You are unhurt," he said, half as a statement, half as a question.

"I'm fine Largo," she said tiredly. "It's been a hell of a night."

"Yes, it has," he replied, trying to think of something else to say. "That mech was fun!" he said, brightly.

Erika began to reply, but was drowned out by Kimiko.

"ERIKA!" she shouted, joyfully. She was running up to them, dragging Piro behind her. "Erika, I didn't see you come out of the club, and I was so worried! Are you OK? You didn't get hurt did you? Where's Sonoda-san? Oh! Largo! You were with her? Are you OK? How is Sonoda-san?" Her questions were flying out at a feverish pace.

"Kimiko," Erika said, halting the torrent. "I'm fine," she said. "Masamichi is fine. He was knocked senseless, but will be ok. They are taking him to a hospital just to be sure, but I'm certain he is not hurt badly."

"What the hell were you doing, Largo?" Piro asked him. "You could have been killed in that thing!" Piro and Kimiko had been watching the entire fight from an alleyway near the 'Cave', and had watched in horror as the robot quickly dispatched Junpei and then Largo. With the robot between them and their friends they hadn't dared leave to alley to try to help. They could only watch, holding each other's hand, though neither realized that they had been doing so.

Miho walked up to five friends, feeling a little twinge of envy. Her only real friend was still nowhere around. She would fix that, soon enough.

"You fought well," Largo said, turning to look over his shoulder at Miho. "It was impressive, especially against such a powerful adversary."

Miho merely looked at him for a brief second, and then turned her attention to the robot. "We ought to leave. They will undoubtedly want to question us, and we'll be here all night. I want to go and get Ping, and then get some rest," Miho said.

"You're right! I forgot about Ping!" Piro exclaimed. "I guess this means that Soren and Oji beat her, right?"

No sooner than Piro had uttered those words, they heard a crescendoing hum coming from the Box-Bot. The TPCD officer surrounding it scrambled around, trying to get back into their mechs as quickly as possible.

: STANDBY MODE TERMINATED. BOX-BOT ACTIVE. ERROR. INVALID COMMAND STRING. INVALID COMMAND STRING. INVALID COMMAND STRING. ERROR. ERROR. USER CONTROL DISABLED. ERROR. SELF-PRESERVATION MODE. ASSESMENT: MULTIPLE THREATS. AGRESSOR MODE ENABLED. :

The humming reached a painful level and blessedly increased in pitch beyond human hearing. The Box-Bot's faceplate began to glow with a sinister red light.

: DESTROY ALL TARGETS. :

_Kanasago Industrial Park_

Soren and Oji crept quietly up to the warehouse, watching for any sign that Yamadera might be alerted to their presence. Oji made a curt motion with his hand that Soren thought might mean for him to go ahead and circle around the warehouse. He started to move, but Oji grabbed his arm. Leaning in really close Oji spoke is a voice that would carry no farther than Soren's ear. "Count to one hundred when you start to head around. Once you get to one hundred, walk in. Make a lot of noise when you do." With that, Oji let him go, and started moving up to the damaged door, sunk into a low crouch.

Soren moved as quietly as he could, considering his lack of training, counting in his head. He got to the door at seventy-eight and crouched, still counting. When he reached ninety-five, he took a deep breath, leaned back, and threw all his considerable weight into a kick to the back door. It burst inward of its hinges with a terrific noise.

Yamadera was on the opposite side of the warehouse, leaning over Oji's recumbent form. She jumped in alarm and turned at the sudden noise.

The two programmers locked eyes for a second, and then Yamadera calmly stood up and pointed the gun at Soren.

"So nice of you to come by and save me the trouble of having to search for you," she snarled.

"What happened to Oji? And where is Frank?" Soren asked, not bothering to respond to her comment. He was surprised at how he was reacting to having a gun pointed at him. He had assumed that he would freeze, but he did quite the opposite.

Everything was in sharp focus and his pulse was singing in his ears. He was nervous, but at the same time, confident. He suddenly understood why people jumped off of buildings, either doing a BASE jump or bungee jump. The feeling of fear, and the rush of adrenaline were a heady combination.

"Oji? You mean your friend here? He apparently didn't think that I would have any sort of defense. He's only stunned, but I'll rectify that momentarily," she said with a significant wave of her gun.

"And Frank?" the big man asked again.

Yamadera merely smiled without warmth or humor. She pointed at the tarp where the Box-Bot had been stored. Soren could see one of Frank's loafers sticking out from underneath. He felt sick to his stomach.

"And now, for you," Yamadera said. She raised the gun and sighted in on Soren.

Soren tensed up, and just before she fired, he ran straight ahead and dived behind the workbench. Yamadera ran toward him with a maddened yell. Soren got to his feet just as she came around the workbench the gun held in front of her. Before she could react, he swung wildly and connected with her wrist. She dropped the gun with an exclamation of pain. She immediately leaped up and clasped her hands around Soren's neck. He was surprised at how strong she was, even with her madness-fueled strength.

The two of them fell over on to the workbench with Yamadera on Soren's chest. Soren started to see spots in front of his eyes, and started reaching out blindly for anything that could be used as a weapon, but the only thing his hands came into contact with was the control box. Yamadera's fingers tightened around his neck, her thumbs cutting off the blood to his brain. He tried to get a grip on the control box, but he was getting disoriented and his hands weren't obeying him. All he was managing to do was press buttons at random. His hands stopped responding to him and he suddenly felt very relaxed. He was beginning to consider taking a nap when Yamadera's eyes widened, and she slumped forward in a boneless heap. As she collapsed, her hands relaxed, and blood rushed back to Soren's head. His last thought before losing consciousness was that he didn't want to sleep with Yamadera on top of him.

Soren came awake with a start, and looked around wildly, trying to figure out where he was. The pain the throbbed in his head reminded him. Yamadera. Frank. Oji.

Oji! He looked and saw the skinny man trying gamely to drag Yamadera towards the office.

"Oji!" Soren cried. "You're alive!" He immediately regretted it, as the noise reverberated around his skull.

"No so loud, dammit," he said. "I've got a hell of a headache."

"What happened?" Soren asked, in a much softer tone, for both their sakes.

"Electric trip wires," was Oji's disgusted reply. "I got sloppy. I thought she had managed to get you," he said, apologetically.

"No, she didn't. Another second and she would have," Soren said. "I didn't know she had anything like trip-wires."

"I think they are jury-rigged," Oji said. "Either way, they stunned me pretty good. I'm going to have to remember that trick."

Soren stood up slowly and suddenly remembered the robot. He turned around fast enough to make his vision swim for a second and a wave of nausea hurled through him. Forcing himself to ignore it, he looked over the bench, and spotted the control box. Somehow, while he had been trying to grab the box, he had managed to put the robot into standby mode.

"Lucky," Oji said, at Soren's shoulder, causing the big man to jump. He hadn't heard the other man approaching. Another wave crashed inside him, his stomach threatening a rebellion. He tried to quell this new onslaught, but his eyes fell on the tarp with Frank's shoe sticking out. He suddenly lost the battle, and fell to his knees beside the bench.

Oji made a sound of disgust and walked around to the other side of the bench. He took a good look at the robot girl lying on the bench, her back open to the air. He was still looking when Soren managed to get his stomach under control.

"We ought to put it back together," Oji said. "I don't think Miho will actually forgive you until you make sure that this thing is working. I know she won't forgive me if we don't."

"Her name is Ping," Soren said, absently as he examined the parts lying on the table. Everything looked like it was still in good shape. She had been mostly reassembled after Soren had loaded her User Control Interface into the Box-Bot. "This shouldn't take too long," he said, and started fiddling with several tools.

"Do you need any help?" Oji asked.

"I'm fine," Soren muttered. After a minute or two, he stood upright, and grabbed Ping's back panel. He turned it a couple of different ways, until he found the correct orientation. He fitted it in place, and it latched in with an audible click. He leaned over and grabbed Ping's ear-blades. He reattached the blades to her ear connections. The ear- blades lit up as her start-up sequence began to run. It would take a few minutes before she was fully active. Just then, he heard a meaty thump and looked up just in time to see Oji falling forward. Yamadera was standing behind him, eyes murderous, and holding a blackjack in her hands. She ducked forward suddenly, and scooped the gun up off the ground where it had fallen after being knocked out of her hands. She leveled the gun on Soren's chest, though it was a little shaky. At three feet away, however, it would be very hard for her to miss. Soren mentally kicked himself for forgetting to grab the gun.

"I'm going to kill you, Soren," she said in an eerily quiet voice. "And then I'm going to kill Miho. And anyone else who gets in my way."

Yamadera was so intent on aiming that she tightened her grip on the gun far too much. The result was that Yamadera's hands were growing more and more unsteady as she gripped the gun. Soren braced himself for the shot, knowing that moving would do no good, at this range.

Yamadera's arm was shaking so badly that she couldn't get a shot. Her fingers weren't responding to her. She gripped the gun with both hands. As she did, a pair of arms grabbed her from behind pinning her arms to her front. As the gun came down, she managed to fire, but bullet struck the workbench. She saw Soren's eyes widen in surprise, but he only hesitated for a second. He jumped on the table and the last thing Yamadera saw was Soren's foot rapidly growing in size as it approached her face.

As her limp form collapsed to the ground, Adamson stumbled back a little.

"Frank! You're alive!" Soren cried out, forgetting that his head still hurt, terribly.

"Yeah," Adamson said, heavily. "Not that I feel I should be, though." He sat down on the ground.

"I thought Yamadera shot you," Soren said, still not sure if he should believe that Frank was sitting right in front of him, completely alive.

"She did, sort of," Frank said. He turned his head, and Soren saw the long scratch on Adamson's cheek. "It grazed, real close. I stumbled backwards and hit my head on the concrete, I think." He gingerly rubbed the back of his head. "At least, that's where the biggest knot is."

Just then, Oji groaned miserably. He sat up slowly, looking around. He saw Yamadera lying unconscious, with a large bruise forming on the side of her head. "You didn't kill her?" he asked.

"Why would we do that?" Soren asked in surprise. He was glad to see that other than a slightly glassy look to his eyes, Oji seemed to be OK.

"She tried to kill you. I thought she had killed your friend, there."

"She tried," Adamson confirmed

"Then we should kill her," Oji said, standing up.

"I don't think I could, now," Soren said.

"I could," Oji said, menacingly and, standing up, took a step forward. He woke up on his back about a minute later.

"I think you should lie still until the ambulance arrives," Soren said, putting up his cell phone.

Soren turned and looked at the workbench, expecting to see Ping with a bullet hole in her. Ping was sitting upright, staring straight ahead.

: System analysis complete. All systems are functioning properly. Resume normal operation. :

(WAAAAA!) Ping cried. (What happened? Where am I? Who are you?) she asked, rapidly. Suddenly her memory banks caught up with her, and she recognized the man that had repeatedly tried to molest her on her way to school. Her eyes narrowed in what she had learned was a menacing fashion. (You, again?) she asked.

"Wait, Ping! Miho is in trouble, and she needs our help!" Soren said hurriedly.

Ping still hadn't downloaded the English.pk4 file that would let her speak the language, but her phonetic translator picked out the word Miho.

(Miho! What about Miho? Did you try to molest her, too?) Ping took a step towards Soren, calculating the trajectory she would need to throw him out of the warehouse, through the ceiling.

Soren's hands were raised in a gesture of supplication. He knew Japanese well enough to understand that she thought he had hurt Miho. "Oji, can you tell her I haven't hurt Miho? I don't think she can speak English." Soren wasn't positive, but he was sure she had said 'molest.' He wanted to correct her, as soon as possible.

(Miho is fine. At least she was when we left the 'Cave.' Soren was helping her.) Oji said, thinking it would be wisest to not give too many details, just yet.

(What do you mean?) Ping asked in confusion. A few of her systems were still a little off-kilter. A fast diagnostic told her why. (And why was I disassembled today?)

Soren stepped forward. "Oji, translate for me, please." The thin man nodded.

Soren started to sketch out the reason they had kidnapped Ping, though it took fast talking on his part to keep her from attacking, right then. When he got to the part about the robot, and it chasing Miho, she interrupted him. (You went chasing after the robot?) she asked.

"Yeah," he said, "I never wanted to hurt her. Neither did Frank. All we wanted her to do was admit her part in manipulating the players in 'EndGames' and the server crash. That was all we wanted. When Yamadera reprogrammed the robot, Frank tried to stop her. I tried to keep the robot away from Miho."

Before he could explain any further, a shower of sparks erupted from the control box. There was blue smoke billowing up from a small hole in the top of the box, and an acrid ozone smell permeated the area. The bullet from Yamadera's single shot had hit the control box and damaged the cooling fans, and it had just overheated. Terminally.

Soren's eyes widened.

"This is bad. This is really bad."


	8. Chapter 8

_All characters portrayed herein are the_

_Intellectual and copyrighted property of_

_Fred Gallagher and **Fredart Studios Lic**._

Megatokyo: NewGames.

Chapter 8

_Kanasago Industrial Park_

Soren stared at the control box for a few seconds, while all the ramifications of the blue smoke streaming out of the bullet hole sunk in.

"Bad?" Oji asked, snapping Soren out of his dumbfounded state. "What do you mean, 'bad'?"

The big American looked over at Oji. "Unless they actually managed to destroy it…" Soren was finding it difficult to speak as he thought about what must be occurring, at this very moment.

"What, Soren?" Oji said, impatiently. Whatever was making this big American shake like that was something Oji wanted to know about, if only to avoid it.

Soren took a breath, and tried to calm himself."Unless they shut it down, the Box-Bot is about to ki…kill everything that is anywhere near it."

_Shinjuku_

The street in front of the Cave of Evil was in total chaos. Shouting and banging filled the night air with a terrible cacophony. Piro crouched behind an overturned police car, trying to find a better place to hide. He scanned around as much as he could, and saw the police officers who hadn't run away as soon as the Box-Bot began it ferocious attack attempting to assist all the civilians and bystanders in escape. The TPCD mechs that had arrived on the scene earlier were trying to keep the Box-Bot distracted long enough for all the citizens to get away.

Piro glanced around the front of the car and noticed Largo and Erika motioning to him from an alleyway across the street. He peeked his head out from behind the car, and saw that the Box-Bot had its back to him. He ran as quickly as he could across the wreckage-strewn road, and dove head long into the alleyway, plowing into Largo's midsection.

"OOF!" Largo grunted as he fell backwards with Piro landing on top of him.

"D00d, that hurt," Largo complained, even as he helped his friend sit up.

"Sorry, Largo," Piro said, abashed. "I didn't mean to run into you. What the hell is going on? Why did that robot start to attack everyone?"

"I dunno, man. That thing has gone cr4zy, for sure," Largo held more than just a hint of admiration in his voice. As much as he loved action video games, he could appreciate the possible uses of this robot. He leaned out and peeked around the wall, trying to get a glimpse of the fight.

The Box-Bot was standing in the middle of the street, with three of the remaining TPCD mechs surrounding. From his brief tenure as a TPCD special agent, Largo recognized the type of mechs that had squared off with the Bot. The largest of the three was an Urban Defense Mark 6 unit. It was a medium sized piece of hardware. The UD Mk 6 stood only a foot or so taller than the Box-Bot. It had excellent defense, but it had very limited offensive capabilities aside from non-lethal counter-measures. Largo had already seen how well stun guns worked on the Bot, and he failed to see how pepper spray and beanbags could work any better.

The other two mechs were Urban Scout Mk 2 units. They were the speedboats of the TPCD. Almost normal human sized, these units were equipped for high-speed reconnaissance only. They had very light defense, and nothing in the way of offense other than the ability to employ a melee attack. If the pilots of the mechs had any sort of tactical planning, the two Scouts would circle and distract the Box-Bot, while the Defense Unit lined up for a powerful hit.

However, as Largo had learned, the TPCD were not usually effective in dealing with an unscheduled event. As if feeling the need to prove this point again, the two Scouts rushed in for hand-to-hand fighting.

The Scout on the left came in low, while the one on the right came in high. The Box-Bot proved that it could move as fast they could as it leapt in the air just as the right-hand Scout leaped forward in a tackle. The other Scout stumbled for a lack of a target, and fell flat on the ground. Just as the other mid-tackle Scout passed underneath the airborne Box-Bot, gravity took over, and the larger robot crashed down onto the back of the Scout. The robots both landed on top of the Scout that had been on the left. There was a screeching sound of metal being bent in ways it hadn't been designed to bend.

By this point, the Defense Unit had closed in, and grabbed the Box-Bot in a bear hug, and lifted it up off the two damaged Scouts. Largo could see that the Box-Bot had sustained almost no damage, thus far. In the brief moment of silence, Largo could hear the hiss of hydraulic fluid spraying from severed lines in the frames of the two Scouts. In the distance, he heard tell tale clanging, heralding the arrival of more Mechs. The Box-Bot bent its arms and grasped the arms of the Defense Unit. It seemed to strain a little, but it managed to loosen the Defense Unit's grip enough for the Box-Bot to slip out of the larger Mech's hold. The Box-Bot landed in a crouch at the feet of the Defense Unit, and wasted no time in shooting upright and plowing the heel of its hand into the "chin" of the Defense Units head.

The other mech's head snapped back, and as its operator tried to regain control of it, the Box-Bot grabbed on to one of the flailing arms, and threw the Defense Mk 6 over its shoulder. The mech flew for a few feet, until it hit the ground and screeched to a halt in front of the alleyway where Largo, Erika and Piro were hiding. The operator's hatch opened and a rather bedraggled TPCD officer crawled out of the mech. The young man took one look at the Box-Bot and ran screaming away from the scene.

Largo stumbled forward as Piro shoved past him, running out into the street

"What the h3ll?" he exclaimed, gripping the wall for balance.

"Oh my god," Erika said in a horrified whisper. She had just noticed what Largo had missed seeing. She pointed at the remains of the mech that Largo had been piloting a few minutes ago. Largo turned his head to look. There was someone lying motionless next to the crumpled frame.

It was Kimiko.

Piro ran up and crouched next to Kimiko's recumbent form. Largo could not hear Piro saying anything, but he could see Piro was speaking rapidly. He was lightly tapping Kimiko's cheek with his hand, and gently shaking her. Kimiko stirred, and Piro visibly relaxed. He stiffened again, and looked past the wreckage with wide, frightened eyes. Largo looked over, as well. The Box-Bot was heading straight for the two of them. Largo wasted no time in moving towards the Urban Defense Mk 6 mech laying abandoned in front of him.

"Largo, no!" Erika cried, seeing him start to climb in the pilots' compartment. "You don't know how to use that thing! You're going to get yourself hurt! You can't fight that thing! You won't be able to stop it!"

Largo paused and looked over at her. "I don't need to stop it. Only distract it."

"But…but, you just can't!" Erika said, her voice breaking.

"It does not matter what I can or cannot do," Largo said, looking directly into Erika's eyes. "It only matters that I try, is that not correct?" he asked, reminding her of her words in the restaurant scant hours ago. "I'm going to try."

With that, Largo slid down into the pilot cavity, and closed the hatch. It must have been his imagination, but it looked like there were tears in Erika's eyes.

The display for this mech was much simpler than the Urban Assault mech he had been in earlier. The controls were simpler as well. Unlike the last mech all of the controls were power-actuated motion. If he moved his hand, the robot moved its hand. It was like wearing a body suit. Only this was a suit that was designed to take a lot of punishment. Largo stood up, and reveled in the power he felt as a subtle vibration in the arms and torso of the suit. He scanned around, and saw the Box-Bot. It was now headed for him, instead of Piro.

Mission accomplished.

Now all he had to do was keep it away from them long enough for them to get to safety.

Easier said than done.

He jumped backward as the Box-Bot took a swipe at the mech's torso. It was a fairly clumsy jump, since Largo was unprepared for the power assist. His vision blurred as he ricocheted off the wall, and stumbled forward. He barely had time to shake his head before the Box-Bot caught up to him. It used no subtlety as it grabbed Largo, and bodily hurled him into the building across the street.

Largo hit the wall with a mind-numbing jolt, and tried to focus past the lights flashing in his eyes. He realized, dimly, that they were warning lights from the mech's status display. The armor plating on the right shoulder was almost completely destroyed.

"Alright, fscker. You've just earned a pwnzing!" he snarled as he stood upright once more. He tasted salt in his mouth, and heard a ringing in his ears but ignored both. The Bot had it's back to him, and was watching down the street. In the far distance, maybe a mile off, there was another group of mechs approaching. The robot's head snapped to the left and focused on Piro and Erika, who were carrying Kimiko into another alleyway.

Before it could even move, Largo shot forward like a man possessed and plowed full-tilt into the back of the robot. Both of them hit the ground, rolling around. The two crashed to a halt with Largo on top of the Box-Bot. Not missing a beat, Largo began pounding his mech's fist into the Bot's faceplate. He got three solid strikes in before the Box-Bot got its feet planted on Largo's chest, and shoved upward.

Largo's mech shot up into the air, and crashed down on top of a ruined police cruiser. It took his mech a second to respond to him, but he managed to stagger to his feet. He looked around, searching for the Box-Bot. It had noticed Erika standing outside of the alleyway, and had backed her up against a wall. She seemed paralyzed with fear and the Bot was beginning to reach for her.

Largo bent down, scooped up a large piece of metal, and reared back to throw it. Time slowed down to a crawl, and everything went terribly silent. Largo looked at Erika even as his arm began to swing forward and saw every teardrop flowing freely down her alabaster cheek. 'She had been crying' he thought. He knew that he would not manage to hit the Bot before it managed to get a hold on Erika, but he was going to try. Even if it killed him, he was going to try.

His arm reached its apex, and his hand started to loosen its grip on the chunk of metal in anticipation of the release. He clearly saw Erika's lovely steel grey eyes widen in fear, and his heart stopped beating. He saw every tiny quiver in her soft, full lips. Why had he never noticed her lips before? He saw details in her face that he had never noticed before. Was her nose that dainty? Had her lashes always been that long? She was quite beautiful. Largo was shocked that he had completely missed it, before. He had noticed her body a couple of times, but never her face. It was like a blind man seeing a sunrise for the first time. An odd motion to his right started to capture his attention, but he kept his focus on Erika and the Bot.

The Box-Bot's hand moved a terrible inch closer to his girl, and his hand was nowhere near ready to throw. He watched in maddening slow motion as Erika braced herself, and looked away from the Bot so as not to see her doom coming.

His hand fell forward enough for release, and the chunk of metal began its futile flight towards the Bot-Box. Even as the chunk of metal left his hand, he started following. Distantly, he noted that he had just hurled the amputated arm of the Urban Assault Mech he had first piloted. 'Poetic,' he thought, wryly. In the midst of his thought, he noticed a strange, fluctuating roaring noise coming from seemingly far away. Without warning a dark blur from the right, moving fast even in his slowed state of mind, shot between Erika and the robot. Suddenly, Erika was no longer there.

Time instantly resumed normal operation, and he plowed into the Box-Bot scant milliseconds after the broken off arm of his first mech careened ineffectively off the Bot's head. Right before he struck the Box-Bot he realized the roaring noise he had been hearing was his own voice, screaming like a crazed animal.

The two combatants tumbled down the alleyway, coming to a halt against the brick wall at the back. Largo rolled to his feet, and faced the Box-Bot. He saw several narrow alcoves in the alley, but his mech was too large to fit in any of them. His only way out was blocked by the Box-Bot. The Bot was crouched in a defensive pose, between Largo and the street, and in these tight quarters the Box-Bot had the upper hand. Looking out on the street, Largo could see Piro and Kimiko moving quickly past the entrance to the alley, carrying the Goth girl's limp form between them. Erika was a mere step behind them, and stopped when she saw Largo's mech. He motioned for her to run.

That was all the Box-Bot needed. It sprang forward with lightning quickness, and plowed its shoulder directly into the midsection of the Defense Unit with such force that Largo felt the impact in his own stomach. He doubled over from the pain and lack of breath. The warning screen showed that the midsection armor plate was about to fall completely off, and it recommended a tactical withdraw. Largo doubted the other robot would give him the opportunity.

Mercilessly, the Box-Bot closed in, again. As it got close to Largo, he could see that the faceplate had a spider web of cracks across it. He reached out, and grabbed the Box-Bot's neck, pulling his other fist back for a strike. There was a slowly spreading darkness in his peripheral vision. He ignored it.

The Box-Bot moved a lot quicker than Largo, however, and grabbed the arm that was gripping its neck. It spun around, and took the Urban Defense unit with it. Once Largo was between the Bot and the street, the Bot let go. It reared back and hit Largo with a snap kick to the already damaged midsection. His mech flew out of the alleyway and crashed to a halt in the street. Largo tried to move, but he felt an odd pressure on his belly, and warm liquid running down his sides. The darkness at the edge of his vision was growing thicker. His last thought before the blackness took him was that he hoped Erika had seen him trying.

_Kanasago Industrial Park_

Oji pulled a chair up and made Soren sit. He wouldn't get any information out of the big guy if he passed out. "Now, calmly, explain to me what the hell is going on."

Soren took a deep breath, and tried to collect his thoughts. "The Box-Bot is a prototype. It's only in its testing stage. There is a major design flaw I noticed when I was loading Ping's UCI into it." He looked over at the young appearing robot girl. "If the user interface is disabled, the Box-Bot will behave as if it was an act of sabotage by the enemy team."

"Enemy team?" Oji asked confusion plainly written on his thin face. "What do you mean?"

"The Box-Bot is Microsoft's version of Ping here," he waved his hand at Ping who was watching everything with interest. "She's designed to make dating-sim games more realistic. The Box-Bot is designed to make multi-player action games more realistic."

"That's stupid," Oji spat.

"It gets worse," Soren replied. "If the Box-Bot believes that its user has been sabotaged, it is programmed to attack all remaining combatants with as much ferocity as it can. The problem is, there was nothing in its programming to tell it that normal humans aren't combatants. It thinks this is just a game, and it wants to win, at any cost."

Ping had been watching the conversation with interest, especially after the American had mentioned her name. She was unable to translate their speech, but she could see in her health monitor that both of them had increased blood pressure and pulse rates. They were obviously very disturbed about something.

"So, what you're saying is that anyone at the Cave of Evil is dead?" the Japanese man asked.

"Unless they actually managed to disable it," the American answered. "If not, I hope they ran away. That way, they should be safe. It's a safe bet that the Box-Bot isn't looking for Ms. Tohya anymore. It's only looking for targets."

"So it's probably going to go after those other kids? Largo and Piro I think their names were?"

Ping grabbed the smaller man's arm at the mention of Piro-san's name.

(What is he saying?) she asked. If something was going on with Piro-san, she wanted to know about it.

The thin Japanese man looked over at her in surprise. (Basically, that robot we were talking about earlier is about to kill everyone around it,) he answered and turned back to the American, dismissing her. "So what can we do about it? It's not like we have any gu…" his statement was interrupted by Ping grabbing his arm, again.

(What do you mean?) she asked him. (It's about to hurt Piro-san? It was chasing Miho-chan, earlier. Is it going to hurt her?)

(It probably already has,) he replied. (Now hush. We need to figure out what we are going to…)

(Where are they?) Ping asked, stepping closer to the small man, her earblades flashing red. He stepped back a bit in surprise.

(What the hell is your problem, android?) She could tell that he was getting angry.

(Where are they?) Ping asked again, a quiet hum emanating from her chest.

He turned to the American in exasperation. "How do you turn this thing…?

Before he could finish what he about to say, she lifted the little man up by the collar of his shirt. Her earblades swept back against her head.

(This is your last chance to help me. Where. Are. My. Friends?)

A strangled noise was all that came from the man. She could see that his collar was choking him.

"They're at the Cave of Evil," the American said, having understood what she was asking. "Cave of Evil" he repeated.

Ping looked at him for the briefest second.

"Thank you," she said in heavily accented English. She turned, dropping the other man as she did so.

Before Oji could recover, the quiet hum increased rapidly in pitch and volume. She crouched slightly and took off into the night heading towards Shinjuku, rupturing the concrete floor with the force of her acceleration.

_Shinjuku_

As soon as Piro had regained his feet in the alleyway, he realized that he had not seen Kimiko for a few minutes. She had been right beside him when the Box-Bot started tossing cars around. They had been separated when one of those cars crashed down right next to where they had been standing. Piro had leaped to the right, and Kimiko dove to the left. He had not seen her since then. He started looking around to see where she might be hiding.

Before it had even registered in his mind that he had seen Kimiko laying next to the ruins of Largo's mech, he was running out into the open. He slid to a halt next to her, and knelt down. He gave no thought to the Box-Bot or any of the fighting going on a few feet away. He started slapping her cheek, very lightly. (Nanasawa-san? Nanasawa-san, please wake up. Come on, Nanasawa! Wake up!) Piro was feeling the beginnings of panic descend on him. His panic abated as Kimiko turned her head slightly. He breathed a sigh of relief, and leaned forward to help her up.

(Are you…,) Piro started to ask how she was feeling when he noticed motion in front of him. He sucked his breath in with fear as he saw the Box-Bot approaching.

Kimiko sat up. She was still kind of groggy, and had just begun to wonder why Piro was in her bedroom, and why he looked panicked, when she heard a thunderous crash behind her. She turned suddenly, and saw a TPCD mech grappling with the Box-Bot. She realized where she was just in time to faint from dizziness.

Piro regained his senses quick enough to keep Kimiko from hitting her head as she collapsed again. He had noticed her sit up and turn too quickly, so he was not surprised to see her faint, again. For now, he needed to get Kimiko off the street and all four of them to somewhere safe. Piro started to lift Kimiko up when Erika, tears streaming down her face, ran up to them.

(Come on!) she almost shouted. (We need to get somewhere safe so he'll stop fighting that thing!) Her voice held an hysterical edge to it. Piro wasn't sure what had her so upset, or what she meant, but he wasn't about to argue with her.

(Help me lift her,) Piro said, trying to get moving. The two of them, working together, managed to carry Kimiko across the street and into another alleyway. This one had several deep alcoves along its length. They had just set Kimiko down when she twitched a little and came awake with a start. Both Piro and Erika held her down, so she wouldn't pass out, again.

(Kimiko, calm down,) Erika said.

(It's ok, Nanasawa-san,) Piro said at the exact same time.

"Piro, take care of her," Erika said, standing up and brushing herself off. She did nothing to wipe the tears from her face, however.

"Where are you going, Hayasaka-san?" Piro asked in confusion.

"Largo is out there, fighting that thing. He got in the mech when you rushed out to get Kimiko. I'm going to try to get his attention to let him know we are safe." Erika turned and walked toward the mouth of the alley.

(Hayasaka-san!) Piro tried to get her attention, but she ignored him.

Erika peeked her head around the corner of the alleyway just in time to see Largo's mech crash down onto one of the relatively undamaged patrol cars. She immediately starting moving towards the mech, when the Box-Bot's footsteps behind her caught her attention. It had just targeted her, she realized, fearfully. She turned, and made an effort to run away. As she turned, her foot slipped on some of the building dust that was liberally piled across the street. She staggered forward, and fell against the wall of a building.

The Box-Bot quickly moved between Erika and the alleyway. She glanced behind her, but the sidewalk was littered with bricks and cop cars. She looked up, and saw the Box-Bot reaching for her. She braced herself against the wall, and got ready to launch herself through the Bot's legs like she had seen that other girl do, earlier. She looked to the side to make sure her path was clear, but before she could actually start moving, she was suddenly knocked out of the robot's reach.

The impact of whatever had hit her, and the impact with the ground, had stunned Erika a little, but she sat up and looked down the street just in time to see Largo tackle the Box-Bot and roll into the alleyway.

(No! Kimiko is still in there!) she yelled futilely. There was no way Largo could hear her.

She tried to stand up, but a weight was pressing down on her. She looked down at her waist, and saw the short girl from the club lying across her lap. The girl was unconscious, and barely breathing. Erika could see that, though the girl was normally pale, she should not be this sallow. Something was wrong with her, it seemed.

Erika tried to get the girl off of her lap as gently as she could, when Piro and Kimiko ran up to her.

(Erika! You're ok!) Kimiko exclaimed, crying. (I was so worried about you!)

(There's no time, Kimiko,) Erika said. (Help me carry this girl, Piro. We need to get away from here. Largo…) her voice broke and she started to cry, again. This time she brushed the tears away, angrily. (Largo is helping us to escape. We need to go, now,) Erika said, her voice firm once more. She tried to stand up, as Piro lifted Miho up off of her lap, but fell back with a grunt of pain.

(Erika, what's wrong?) Kimiko asked concernedly.

(I must have twisted my ankle when I slipped a moment ago.) Erika looked down, and though she didn't see any swelling, she could certainly feel the pain. (I think I can walk, but you'll need to help Piro carry her,) she said, indicating the still unresponsive girl. (Let's get moving.)

Piro and Kimiko half carried, half dragged Miho between them, but managed a fairly quick pace. They started moving down the street as quickly as they could, with Erika limping along right behind them. They passed by the alleyway that Largo and the Box-Bot had crashed down into. After the two brawlers had rolled past Kimiko and Piro's alcove, both of them wasted no time in getting out of the alley. They didn't want to be in there with that fight going on.

Erika paused at the mouth of the alleyway, and saw Largo squared off with the Box-Bot. Largo must have noticed her, because he made a motion with the mech's hands that Erika assumed meant for her to leave. She decided to trust him, and moved to catch up to Piro and Kimiko. She turned in horror as she heard the sickening crunch of steel smashing into steel. She wasn't sure what had happened, but a second or two later, Largo's mech came flying out of the alcove and crashed to a halt in the street. Erika could see the damage to the torso, as the mech slid to a halt on its back.

She heard an incoherent shout from the alleyway.

She didn't even consider her own safety, but she took a brief second to make sure that Piro and Kimiko were getting away. Her two friends and their burden were turning a corner as she looked. She limped over to the shattered TPCD mech as fast as her damaged ankle would let her. So far, the Box-Bot hadn't come out of the alleyway, but she didn't really care anymore. Largo had been hurt enough for her sake.

She climbed on top of the mech and was horrified at the condition of the mech's body. The armor on the front was gone. Completely destroyed. She could see a large gash at the bottom of a deep dent in the midsection. She searched around for a brief moment, until she found the cockpit release handle. The hatch popped open easily enough, but a thick, warm, dark liquid came running out of the cockpit, and all over Erika's hands. Her eyes widened in horror and shock. She saw Largo, eyes closed and his face peaceful. A trickle of blood had been running out of his nose and mouth. He had a faint smile on his lips.

(No. No.) She shook her head, feeling the blood drain from her face. (This…this can't be...,) her voice failed her as sobs racked her body. She pounded weakly on the mech.

(Largo, oh god, Largo…you can't be dead!) she wailed at him.

Largo gave no reply.


	9. Chapter 9

_All characters portrayed herein are the_

_Intellectual and copyrighted property of_

_Fred Gallagher and **Fredart Studios Lic**._

Megatokyo: NewGames.

Chapter 9

_Outskirts of Shinjuku_

It would have taken a very fast camera to capture a picture of Ping as she ran full tilt away from the warehouse, heading towards her friends. When the big American had been telling her about the events of the day, he had mentioned that the Microsoft robot had tracked Miho-chan through her cell-phone signal. She knew that they had disposed of the phone, but she guessed that Piro-kun still had his on him.

The little GPS screen in her vision field sub-display showed his location, relative to her position. She was only a couple of kilometers away from the signal source. She increased her speed to the point that her footsteps were fracturing the pavement beneath her.

If there had been a camera fast enough to take a picture of her nearby, it might have caught the message backlit on her earblades.

:: Mode: Auto ::

:: End User Protect Mode: Enabled ::

:: Maximum Threat. 100 Power Access ::

She was at full power, and prepared to annihilate anything that was threatening her friends.

Just a few more minutes, Piro-kun, she said to herself, punching through a recently repaired wall.

_Shinjuku_

Junpei stood on the roof of a building and surveyed the damage below. Before the robot had even started its attack, the big ninja had grabbed Miho and leapt upwards, landing nimbly on the roof of a building across the street.

He saw that Largo was in the alleyway, watching the robot.

L33t Master plans attack, he said to himself.

He'll get killed if he does, Miho said suddenly, materializing out of the darkness at Junpei's elbow. If she had surprised him, he gave no sign of it.

Trust L33t Master, Miss. He is warrior.

Miho gave no reply, just sat watching the tableau unfold. She was fairly impressed by the way Great Teacher Largo battled the Box-Bot. She would have never guessed he was capable of a fight outside of a computer environment.

You're not going to help him? Miho asked curiously.

No, miss. Very rude, interrupt battle. L33t Master get hurt, Junpei help. Not get hurt, Junpei not help. Is way of honor. Junpei never took his eyes off the fight, wincing as Largo crashed onto the police car. He was still watching Largo struggle to stand upright, and was beginning to wonder if he should help, when he heard Miho spit out a curse right before she shimmied down the side of the building. He could not see what she was holding on to as she descended.

He was fairly surprised at how much trouble he was having following her movements as she ran across the street, and then turned to head towards the Box-Bot and the former idol. He saw Largo grab the severed arm from his old mech, and lean back to throw. He was preparing to leap down onto the robot to distract it long enough for Largo to complete his attack, when he saw Miho slam into Erika and knock her out of the robot's grasp. He paused long enough to see Largo's mech tackle the Box-Bot, sending them both tumbling down the alleyway. He jumped up in the air, and landed on the roof of the building across the street, right next to the alley that the two mechs had tumbled down. He briefly noticed Piro and Kimiko hurriedly exiting out into the street.

He strode down to the end of the alley, and watched Largo square off against the robot. He was worried that the Box-Bot had the advantage in the narrow alleyway.

His dismay increased as Largo grabbed the neck of the Box-Bot after its initial rush and left himself completely open to a counter-attack. Even though he was expecting it, seeing the Box-Bot kick Largo's mech out of the alley stunned Junpei for a moment. He ran to the other end of the building and saw Erika limping towards Largo. He glanced back down the alleyway, and saw the Box-Bot striding purposefully towards the street. It took Junpei less than a second to decide to act.

With a fierce battle cry, meant more to distract the robot than anything, the big Ninja jumped down from the roof with both feet extended in front of him. The Box-Bot quickly turned in the direction of the shout, but due to the echoes in the alley, it thought that Junpei was directly behind it. Junpei hit the robot's chest as hard as he could, which caused the Bot to stumble back a few steps. Flipping over after the impact, Junpei landed in a crouch in front of the robot. The two of them looked at each other for a brief second before the Box-Bot rushed forward with inhuman speed, striking Junpei in the chest with its outstretched arm.

When the Box-Bot kicked Largo's mech up into the air, Miho turned away in disappointment. 'Wait,' she thought. 'Disappointment? Why disappointment?' She was kind of confused by this feeling. Had she felt disgust, it would not have surprised her. Was it possible that she was beginning to feel that Largo was a worthy opponent again? Is she disappointed that he had been beaten just as he was showing his true abilities?

Before she could continue that line of thought, she noticed the Box-Bot moving towards Erika with deadly intent. Before she could think rationally through what she was about to do, she cursed and jumped off the edge of the building. As she fell, she started grabbing window ledges and small outcroppings on the building face to slow her descent enough that she wouldn't break her legs when she hit the ground. Her hands were moving so rapidly that anyone watching would have only seen her pressing her hands lightly against the building.

She hit the ground only a few meters from where Erika was bracing herself to escape from the Box-Bot, using a technique that Miho herself had used earlier in the evening. She was going to dive between the Box-Bot's legs. Knowing the robot's level of intelligence as well as she did she knew that the Bot would not fall for the same trick twice. Miho's heart was beating rapidly, and she prayed she would have enough stamina to get Erika out of the robot's grasp. She shot forward as quickly as she was able to. As fast as her hands had been moving against the building, they would have seemed mired in molasses compared to the speed with which she could force her legs to move.

Moving so quickly that tunnel blur distorted her vision slightly, Miho almost instantly traversed the distance between herself and the robot's newest victim. Just before she impacted with Erika, she abruptly slammed both feet down mere inches from the statuesque woman, in an effort to kill some of her momentum. It would not do to save Erika from the robot, only to kill her with kinetic force rupturing her organs.

The two women collided, hard. Miho's inertia carried both of them out of the robot's reach, just before Largo's mech crashed into the Bot.

It had been a hard day for Miho, who had fallen out of the habit of exercising. She had put more strain on her body today than she would have in a normal week. Between all the exertion and the shock of her impact with Erika, Miho's awareness floated away on sea of gentle black waves.

Here, let's lay her down in this doorway, Kimiko said decidedly to Piro.

Watch her head, Piro answered, easing the short girl to the ground.

They arranged Miho in what they hoped would be a comfortable position. The two friends sat back on their heels and tried to catch their breath.

Piro, Kimiko said suddenly with a trace of panic in her voice, have you seen Erika since we came around the corner? She started looking around.

What? Piro asked, stupidly. She was right behind us, I thought.

Do you see her anywhere, now? Kimiko asked with irritation in her voice. I'm sorry, Piro, she apologized immediately. We've got to go find her! She was limping, and maybe her ankle was hurt worse than she thought! Kimiko stood up and started walking towards the ruined street they had just left.

NO! Piro said panicking. Kimiko looked at him with anger flashing in her eyes. Piro held his hands up. I mean, you stay here with Miho, and make sure she's ok. I'll go and look for Erika. He was not feeling really brave, but felt that it would be better if he went to look for Erika. He didn't want Kimiko put in any more danger than she had been.

Before she could object, Piro stood up and half-ran back the way they had come.

Be careful, Piro, Kimiko called out.

Come back to me, she said to herself.

Piro jogged up to the corner and paused before going out into the disaster area. He leaned his head out from around the edge of the building and glanced up and down the street. Seeing no sign of the Box-Bot, he started looking for Erika.

He took a cautions step out into the street, but could not see anything moving. He heard a strange hiccupping sound coming from around an overturned police car, and quickly, but quietly as possible, ran over to the car to investigate. He leaned around the car, the pungent stench of hot radiator fluid stinging his nostrils. His eyes widened in horror. The image he saw as he looked around the wrecked car would haunt him for a good long time.

Erika. Kneeling next to the mech that Largo had been piloting, sobbing like a broken-hearted child.

Largo. Pulled halfway out of the mech, red liquid pooled around him, soaking his hair and his shirt.

With no hesitation, he started out into the open, heading toward his friend. Largo. The person who had stood by him through more troubles than most people even saw in their lives. Largo, the one man who had put himself between that robot and Erika.

He took two steps past the car when the Box-Bot came running out of the alley, following Junpei. The Ninja ran across the street, and leapt up in the air. He hit the building across the street with both feet and rebounded through the air towards the robot. The Bot leaned back slightly and grabbed the airborne Ninja's shirt. It tossed its arm upwards and for the second time that evening, threw Junpei into a building. The big Ninja crashed into a window and vanished from sight. The Bot immediately started moving towards Piro and Erika.

The Box-Bot covered more than half the distance between them, when it suddenly leapt backwards several feet.

A Tokyo Police mech crashed down to the ground right where the robot had been standing mere moments before. It stood up, and through the settling dust, Piro saw that this mech was painted black, with "Tokyo Police: Skirmisher Division" in white block lettering on its back. It was a medium sized mech, but where the Cataclysm Division mechs tend to be fairly hard and square looking, this mech was sleek and dangerous.

Two more mech's quickly landed in a triangle around the Bot. The Box-Bot crouched slightly and waited.

Piro wasted no time in running over to the ruined Urban Defense mech. Sliding to a stop next to Erika, he grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

Hayasaka-san! Hayasaka-san! What happened? You need to get out of here! Piro shouted. He was having trouble hearing his own voice over the booming noises coming from the area where the TPSD was fighting the Box-Bot. He glanced over, and saw that the TPSD was not fairing so well against the Box-Bot. The Bot had one mech by the legs and was using it as a bludgeon against the other two.

When Erika failed to respond to him he raised his eyes to where his friend lay within the mech.

Up close, the vision was even more alarming than from across the street. Largo was struggling in the harness of the pilot's cavity. He was trying to take his pants off.

A brief lull in the fighting nearby allowed Piro to hear his friend cursing.

"D4mn p4nts! G3t 0ff! J00 are h4mp3ring my b4ttle!" he was almost helplessly tangled in the harness. He tilted his head back and looked at Piro. "J0, d00d. Give me a hand, here. This hydraulic fluid is making it difficult for me to get out of this thing."

"Largo! You're not dead!" Now that Piro looked at the liquid covering his friend, he realized it was not actually red, but was a dark orange color. In the inconsistent light, he had only thought it was blood.

Erika had managed to gain enough control of her self that she had heard Largo speaking. She stood up and leaned over the side of the mech to look at Largo.

"Largo! You're alive! You're…half-naked," she said with dry irritation. Largo had managed to get his shirt off, and had his pants halfway down his waist. She drew in a breath, but whether she was going to express her happiness, or remove large pieces of Largo's ego was something Piro never found out. A grinding screech interrupted whatever she was going to say as the remains of the legs of the TPSD mech the Bot had been tossing around flew over their heads.

The Bot lowered its arm, and looked over at the trio huddled around the junked TPCD mech. Piro saw dents all long the body of the Box-Bot, and a deep tear in the armor down the length of its right arm. The TPSD had put up a serious fight. The Box-Bot took one step towards Piro, Largo and Erika, but halted. It was having difficulty moving its left leg. Every time it tried to take a step, some sort of pressurized gas vented out of the knee joint. Gamely, it started hobbling towards them.

Hayasaka-san, help Largo out of this mess. I'm going to distract this thing. It won't be able to move as fast as it had been, so I might be able to stay away from it. He looked over and saw her objections forming behind her eyes. Hayasaka-san, please. Get Largo to safety. He's probably hurt worse than he knows or will admit. With that, Piro sprang up and ran as hard as he could away from the TPCD mech. He turned and saw that the Box-Bot still had its attention focused on Largo and Erika. He looked around frantically. There was a scattering of building rubble lying about. He scooped up a decent sized rock, and hurled it at the robot's back.

He missed. But, the robot turned anyway having determined that Piro was now more of a threat than the other two. Piro started walking backwards, still hurling rocks every time he saw one he could manage to throw. He missed most of the time, but he hit often enough that the Box-Bot stayed with him. He glanced over to where Erika was trying to help Largo out of the mech. He thought they might have the buckle undone. Good. Just another minute or two and he could turn and run. While his attention had been diverted, he failed to watch his step and stumbled to the ground, striking his head against the street.

Ping came around a corner, and immediately saw Piro being attacked by the Box-Bot. Without slowing down, she shifted her course slightly, and ripped a decent sized traffic sign out of the ground.

Bright points of light exploded in Piro's vision, and it took him a minute to regain control of his limbs. His eyes cleared right as the Box-Bot grabbed him and lifted him up by the neck. The metal hand began to tighten slightly as the Bot held Piro up straight out in front of itself. Piro kicked the Bot, but it twisted its body slightly so that Piro was dangling from its outstretched arm, with the robot's torso in profile.

Piro kept kicking, even though he could feel his kicks getting weaker.

A strange noise filled the night air. It was an unusual noise, punctuated by a staccato hammering and rapid cracking noise. He started to focus on the noise, but the world went silent. Just as his vision was beginning to darken, there was a shower of sparks in his eyes, and a hard, jarring impact rattled his teeth.

Before he could orient on what had occurred he fell ingloriously to the ground with the Box-Bot's arm lying on top of him. He turned his head and saw Ping sliding on the street, her hand on the ground to maintain her balance. She held a mutilated street sign in her other hand.

"What the hell?" Piro asked.

Get away from Piro-kun! Ping almost snarled as she dropped the sign.

The Box-Bot turned towards Ping, and Piro saw the stump where the arm that had been holding him used to be. It was a jagged mess of metal and wires.

Get away from Piro-kun! Ping repeated, with even more venom in her voice.

Piro struggled with the severed arm that had him pinned to the ground, but it was terribly heavy and he was having difficulty moving it. The Box-Bot noticed his movement and shifted slightly to look at Piro.

Ping shrieked at an earsplitting volume and shot forward towards the Bot. It saw her coming and turned to defend itself. In less than a second, Ping covered the distance between them. The Box-Bot held its arm in front of it, but Ping brushed the appendage aside as though it were the flimsiest silk. She crashed into the Box-Bot's chest and the two of them fell to the ground.

The Box-Bot hit the ground, and rolled backwards. It tried to get its feet set under it, but the damage to its knee was too great and the joint gave out. The Bot landed on its butt with an inglorious clanging noise.

Ping had jumped clear of the Bot when it had started to roll backwards, and shot towards it once more. The Bot was more ready for her though and managed to roll sideways to avoid her. It clambered to its feet just as Ping managed to stop herself. Without giving the Bot anymore time to prepare, she launched another headlong attack. The Box-Bot sidestepped and grabbed Ping's hair as she shot past. She jerked to a halt and her feet flew out from underneath her. Before she could regain her footing, the Box-Bot lifted her off the ground by her long braids.

It started to spin in a circle, swinging Ping around like the proverbial rag-doll. Before it could spin fast enough to throw her, however, its knee betrayed it once again. With a tortured hiss, the joint locked and the Box-Bot stumblingly halted, still holding on to Ping. The little Sony android had apparently had enough of this Microsoft upstart, and was ready to end this fight. Still dangling from its hand, she reared back and punched the Box-Bot's wrist, completely destroying the hand control servos. The metal hand holding her hair went completely limp, and Ping dropped lightly to the ground. Before the Bot could assess and react to the new damage, Ping hit it with both hands in the chest.

It flew backwards several feet and ground to a halt on its back. As it was trying to sit up, Ping leaped onto its chest and drove it back down to the ground. She used her momentum to drive her fist into the already cracked faceplate, shattering the glass. Her fist tore through the Box-Bot's motor-control processor and it began spasmodically twitching and thrashing around. With her fist still in its brain, she jumped clear of the malfunctioning robot, taking its head with her. The Box-Bot gave one last shudder, and with decreasing hiss, lay still.

In the deafening silence that followed the fight, Piro struggled gamely to lift the ruined arm off of his chest. Ping straightened up and looked around. The moment she spotted Piro, she let out an inarticulate cry and ran over to him. With no apparent effort, she lifted and tossed the severed arm away from Piro.

Ping! Are you… what are… what are you doing here? he finally managed to ask.

Piro-kun, don't move! she admonished him as he attempted to stand up. You might be hurt! A quick scan showed her that he hold only minor surface injuries. A couple of bruises were beginning to form around his neck. Relieved that Piro was not seriously injured, she reached down and lifted the short American to his feet.

Piro-kun! I'm so glad you're alright! she exclaimed, reaching out as if to hug him. To her dismay, though Piro recoiled in horror as she stretched her hands out.  
Ping… can you… can you take the head off your hand, please? he asked, shakily.

Ping looked down at her hands, and noticed that the Box-Bot's decapitated head was still attached to her hand. As she was shaking the head loose, Kimiko came running up.

Piro! Are you OK? What happened? I was watching, but everything happened to fast! Oh! Ping-san! You're here! Did you help Piro?

Piro was feeling slightly dizzy, and Kimiko's flood of questions was beginning to make his head whirl. Kimiko-san, please! I'm fine. Just give me a moment to calm down, please. He had begun shaking, uncontrollably in the aftermath of his near-death experience. Is Tohya-san still unconscious? He asked, trying to give Kimiko something else to think about.

Miho-chan was here! Is she hurt? Where is she? Ping asked rapidly. She had been just as worried about her friend as she had been for Piro.

Don't worry, Ping-san, Kimiko said soothingly, Tohya-san is ju…

Right behind you, Miho said quietly, startling Kimiko so badly that she jumped forward, stumbled and fell backwards. Piro knelt down to help Kimiko to her feet.

Miho-chan! Ping exclaimed, reaching out and hugging her best friend. She did a quick scan on Miho, as well, and saw that her pulse rate was low, as well as her blood pressure. Miho-chan, you're not feeling good. You should go to the doctor!

I'm fine, Ping. I just need some rest. I have been worried about you. I'm very glad to see you operating again. Miho visually checked Ping over for obvious damage, but aside from being dusty and her clothing a little tattered, the android appeared to be operating normally.

What's going on? Piro asked in confusion. I thought that you had been taken apart, Ping. How did you get put back together?

Before Ping could answer, a small fleet of police cars come screeching around the corner, followed by a squad of TPCD and TPSD mechs.

FREEZE! one of the Cataclysm Division troopers shouted though his loudspeaker. Everybody stopped and turned towards the oncoming police force. The flock of cars and mechs surrounded everyone standing in the street. Every one of the mechs had some sort of weapon pointed at the ragged group. Ping stepped to the front of the group, and placed herself as squarely as she could in from of Piro and Miho. The tableau remained frozen for several seconds until one of the officers in the back gave an order for the mech units to stand-down.

Two of the mechs stepped back, and cleared a path for Inspector Sonoda to come through. He looked the worse for wear, but was steady on his feet and his gaze was unwavering.

You've made a right fine mess of this street, haven't you? he asked of no one in particular. Are any of you hurt, or need medical attention? he asked. Ping started to speak up, but Miho put her hand on the android's shoulder and shook her head slightly. But, Miho-chan… Ping began. Miho just shook her head again, with a slight smile. We're fine for the moment, Inspector, she said.

Sonoda looked at her for a few seconds before nodding. Where's the robot? Everyone stepped away from the wreckage of the Box-Bot as it lay with oil and hydraulic fluid still seeping from its shell. Sonoda walked over to the mangled remains and looked at the group of humans and android.

Wait! What about that Ninja? He was hurt, wasn't he? Kimiko asked, concernedly. Piro smacked his forehead and regretted it, instantly. Fighting past the throbbing pain in his head, he told Sonoda about Junpei's fight, and showed him which building the Ninja had been hurled into. Sonoda motioned for one of the medics to come over and spoke rapidly. The medic ran off, grabbing two other medics. He shook his head slightly and motioned for one of the troopers to start collecting evidence and photographs of the scene.

Let's get out of their way, for now, he said to Piro and started walking over to a pile of rubble that looked like it could serve as seats for everyone. He sat down on the flattest piece of rock he could find and sighed. OK, tell me everything that happened, from the beginning, he said.

Piro, Kimiko and Ping all began talking at once, with Largo loudly proclaiming his prowess in battle. Hold it! Sonoda yelled, holding up a hand. One at a time, and slowly enough for me to write this down. He produced a pad of paper and pen.

Piro started talking first, and detailed everything he knew about what went on. Sonoda asked a few clarifying questions, but otherwise allowed Piro to tell his tale all the way through. Afterwards, he had Kimiko and Erika tell him as well. He looked over at Largo and Miho after Piro and the other girl's finished talking, and was trying to decide if he had enough info.

I think you will find the perpetrators of this whole escapade at Kanasago Industrial Park, Inspector, Miho said, and sat down next to Ping, clearly unwilling to say any more for the moment. Sonoda looked over at her for a second, and keyed the mike on his radio. Dispatch, send a some units over to Kanasago Industrial Park. I want a mix of squad cars and Skirmish mechs out there. Over. The radio squealed with some unintelligible words for a few seconds. Sonoda looked mildly surprised. Very well, send them here. Over and out. He put his radio back in his belt holster.

Well, it seems that there was some sort of fight at the warehouse, and two of the guys called the police. All three people there are being brought here, now.

Before he could say anything else, Junpei limped over to the group after assuring the medics that he didn't need any sort of medical assistance.

"Junpei, dude! They told me you got thrown into a building!" Largo exclaimed.

"Yes, L33t Master," Junpei answered morosely. "Junpei was defeated."

"Don't worry about it," Largo said. "That thing pwnzed me, too. I do not remember very much about the battle, but Piro said it even destroyed several Skirmisher mechs." Largo had a look that combined both awe and dismay. "The b4ttl3 pr0w3ss that robot displayed was extraordinary. The pilot's of those mechs will be remembered as heroes."

"Actually," Sonoda interjected, "the Skirmisher division is made up of entirely remote operated mechs. The pilots were 15km away from the fight."

"Remote operation?" Largo looked horrified. "The pilots were nowhere near the fighting?" Anger blazed in his eyes. "Small wonder they were defeated so easily. Without being within the sphere of contention, one cannot feel the battle wrath come over them!"

"Would you rather the pilots were killed," Erika asked, mildly.

"What? No! Of course not," Largo said. "However, had the pilots been within their mechs, they would not have been given such a beatdown."

The wailing of sirens interrupted the argument as two more cruisers and an ambulance rolled up to pile of rubble where everyone was sitting.

Sonoda beckoned to the officers in the cruisers and they hauled Soren and Yamadera, both in handcuffs, out of the cars. The ambulance doors opened and Adamson stumbled out of the back. He had an enormous swath of bandages around his head. He, too, was wearing handcuffs. The officers escorting the three guided them over to the group of friends amidst sulfurous swearing from Yamadera.

You little bitch! Yamadera yowled when she saw Miho standing there, apparently unharmed. I'll kill you! Take these off! I'm going to strangle that bitch with my bare hands!

Well, that answers that, Sonoda said mildly, gesturing for the officers to take Yamadera back to the cruiser. Which leaves you two, he said, looking at Soren and Adamson.

"Soren should not be in handcuffs, Inspector," Miho said. "Without his assistance, I do not doubt that the robot would have killed me, tonight. Adamson, however, I'm not sure about."

"Hey! I took a bullet for you!" Adamson protested, indicating a heavily bandaged cheek. "I don't need to be arrested, either!" Miho looked over at him with an arched eyebrow. Sonoda looked at Soren.

"Why don't you tell me what happened, then," he said to the big man.

It took Soren a few minutes to relay everything that had happened, but when he was done, Sonoda nodded to the officers standing behind them and promptly had their handcuffs removed. "You're free to go, for the moment, but please don't try to leave the country for a few days. After the investigation, if everything checks out, I think we'll be able to ignore the theft charge provided that the rightful owner of the Sony android does not wish to press charges." Considering that Tsubasa was still wandering abroad in America, Sonoda was fairly sure there wouldn't be any charges.

"I think that is everything I need from you now, but I'll probably be talking to you all over the next couple of days depending on how the investigation goes. For the moment though, you should all go home and get some rest. I know I need it." With that, the Inspector got up and walked over to a cluster of officers, giving them final instructions before getting one of the patrol cars to give him a ride home.

Piro-kun, do you mind if I go home with Miho-chan? I want to stay with her and make sure she's going to be OK. Ping looked pleadingly at Piro.

No, I don't mind, Ping. As long as you're sure you're OK, as well.

I'm fine! She replied brightly, pleased by his concern. I'm just glad everyone is OK!

Kimiko walked up and wrapped her arms tightly around the little android. Her shoulders were shaking slightly.

Thank you, Ping-san. Without you here, Piro…I mean we would probably have been killed tonight. Before Ping could reply, or even hug her back, Kimiko let go and walked a little ways away. Piro jumped up and walked quickly over to her.

Kimiko-san? Are you OK? he asked. Kimiko's shaking seemed to be getting a little worse. Abruptly she turned and embraced Piro.

I'm fine, Piro, she said in a lightly quavering voice. I'm fine.

Piro stood there, holding Kimiko, with a look of confused wonder on his face.

"Junpei must go, L33t Master. Need to report to Head Ninja." He stood for a moment, looking at Largo. "L33t Master fought well tonight."

"Dude, that robot would have given any warrior a hard fight." He put his hand on Junpei's shoulder and shook his head. "Your help was greatly needed, tonight. If your Head Ninja has a problem with that, you tell him to go pack sand."

Junpei chuckled slightly, the first Largo had ever heard.

"Good night, L33t Master." With that, Junpei bounded up to the roof of the building and took off into the night. Largo stood for a moment, looking up, and the turned and looked over to where Piro stood hugging Kimiko. He shook his head again. Piro was either more reckless or stupid than Largo had supposed. He turned to walk away, and almost ran into Erika who was standing right behind him. She had a thoughtful expression on her normally impassive face.

"Are you unharmed," Largo asked with a scowl marring his stoic features.

"I'm fine," she replied. "What about you?"

"Your ankle was damaged. Does it bother you, still?" He looked down at her feet. He could see the bulge made from the wrapping the medic had put on her foot.

"It's fine, Largo. Just sprained. Are you hurt?" she repeated.

"I am not permanently damaged."

"That doesn't answer my question. Are you hurt, at all?"

Largo's scowl deepened slightly. "Does it matter?"

"Yes," Erika said, still with a thoughtful expression.

"I have a few minor injuries, yes. They are nothing that you need to worry about. I have sustained greater injury at your hands than I have tonight." Largo thought back to his broken arm. "I will recover easily."

Erika raised her hand to Largo's face. Largo tensed, waiting for the blow to land. Her fingers came to rest, lightly, against his cheek. "You said you don't remember very much about the fight?"

He looked wary, and avoided eye contact with her. "No, I don't. I remember getting beaten in the first mech. Then a few seconds after I climbed into the second mech." He reached up and pointed to the tear tracks in the dust on Erika's face. He looked at her for a moment and then moved his hand and took Erika's hand off of his face. "I'm going to get some b33r," he said. "Would you like to come?"

"You really don't remember anything else?" she asked, thinking of their brief conversation before his second fight and her reaction to seeing him unconscious in the battered mech. Also, she remembered his crying out her name as he threw himself headlong into danger to protect her. Oddly, it didn't annoy her, in the least.

"No." He shook his head as he said, still not meeting her eyes.

"Pity," she murmured while turning away. She looked over her shoulder. "There's a bar two blocks away that should still be open. Try not to over do it. Goodnight." With a casual wave of her hand, she walked off.

Piro and Kimiko released each other after what had seemed like an eternity in each other's arms. Some night, huh? Piro asked stupidly. Kimiko only nodded slightly.

I…I'm sorry for asking you to get involved in this, Piro. I know it wasn't your business, and if I had known that asking you to help them out would have almost gotten you… her words came to a trembling halt. She looked down at the ground.

Hey, no, don't worry about it, he said trying to sound soothing and calm. He hoped she would ignore the quaver in his voice. I would have felt worse if anyone had been hurt and I hadn't been here at all. I'm OK. And you're OK. Largo and Erika are going to be fine. So, please don't worry about it. Piro reached out to touch her shoulder, but drew back at the last moment. He stood watching her for a moment. Kimiko-san?

Kimiko raised her head up and looked Piro in the eye. She looked like she was about to say something, but then she turned and saw Erika walking away from Largo.

I…I should get going. Erika is going to need help walking home on that leg. She turned and started to walk away, before Piro could speak. He started to follow, but she turned suddenly, and the two of them almost collided. Their faces were only inches apart. He could feel her warm breath moving across his lips for an instant. Kimiko rested her hand lightly on Piro's chest. Every fiber of his being screamed for Piro to lean slightly forward, and bridge the gap between them.

Mere instants before his resolve crystallized, Kimiko broke the tableau by stepping back. Goodnight, Piro, she said softly, and turned and walked quickly over to Erika.

It took Piro a few seconds to realize that Kimiko had addressed him in a fairly intimate manner. His head started spinning with something he had not felt in a long time.

Hope.

Largo stood watching Erika for a few minutes, the sting of the lie burning on his tongue. He remembered quite a bit about the fight. He needed time to explore his feelings about it. About what he said, thought and did. He needed time, and beer. He turned and walked toward the bar.

Miho watched the entire tableau from a nearby alleyway. She wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad by the way the game was progressing. There were too many variables in the mix. Still, she believed it to be a game still worth playing. She would continue playing, tomorrow. For now, she needed rest.

Come on, Ping. It's been a long night. Let's go home, she said. She turned and, holding on to her only real friend's arm, walked off into the night.

END


End file.
